Oregon Treasures and Shining the Light

A treasure is something highly valued.  I have spent most of this last week in Oregon and have treasured every moment of my time here.  It has been such a blessing to renew old friendships and meet new friends and even family.   The Lord has given me so many things to be thankful for this week and it has been hard to choose.  I have listed a few of the treasures he has given me, but there are so many more.  Having a thankful heart and looking for the gifts of the Lord can be habit forming.  I hope you are cultivating this habit and benefitting from the joy that comes in seeing how good the Lord is to you each day!

I went with my friend, Gail to the coast of Oregon one day this week.  We went to see a lighthouse.  When we got there we found out that the lighthouse was being repaired.  We were able to tour the home of the lighthouse keepers from days gone by.  We were also able to see the work house they used when they were on duty.  It was a little sad to see the lighthouse completely tarp covered.  Lighthouses are meant to shine a light and keep ships safe.  These days ships have GPS units and don't need the lighthouses as much, but it is still comforting to know that the lighthouse is there to warn them away.  This one can't do its job until the repairs are complete and the tarps removed.

Our lives can be like that tarp covered lighthouse.  Are you doing your job and shining a light in the darkness of this world?  Are you helping others steer clear of danger?  Are you encouraging joy rather than discord?  Be a light.  Shine the light of our Savior and help others find the way out of darkness.  Share your joy in the gifts that the Lord blesses you with each day and see how your friends and neighbors respond.

768. Finished some reports.

769. A local library to study and find quiet.

770. A scenic drive.

gifts straight, curved, turn

771. Straight road from Portland.

772. This chair seen around a curve in the 'Secret Garden' near my hosts' house.

773. I finally found the right turn to get there.

774. A visit to a beautiful part of the Oregon coast.

775. The coast road with great views all along it.

776. Seafood at Mo's.

778. Garage sale looking and a pretty stump.

779. Birks with no sales tax!

780. Fun socks :)

781. some of my presentation down on paper - unexpected speaking makes me nervous!

782. A fun community BBQ.

783. Pizzookie at B.J.'s restaurant.  I gotta figure out how to make these!

784. ACK! guest speaker for the sermon time - unexpected, but the Lord blessed and helped!

785. Lunch with folks from church and the Chapmans.

786. Dinner and a great visit with Jaynes and Chapmans!

787. Meeting some 'new to me' family and having a wonderful time.

788. This beautiful mountain displaying His majesty!

789. A stunning waterfall just off the road back to Eugene.

So there are a few of my Oregon treasures.  The Lord gives good gifts and I have enjoyed savoring these this week.  May His gifts to me shine a light on your own life and help you see His gifts to you.  I hope you have had a blessed week!

This post is linked up with Ann

Abundantly Blessed

Another couple of weeks have passed.  I am keeping busy, but not any busier than I am at home in Turkana.  It is just harder to do ‘daily’ things when you are on others’ schedules.  I find I have to really work to keep my daily routines since I am not in the same place longer than a few days at a time.  I have continued to count my many blessings and gifts from the Lord.  I may not get them written down every night, but I have tried to remember them until I can.  This really helps me to stay focused on what the Lord has been doing each day.  I need to work at getting back to writing them down before I sleep!  It is much easier to remember for that day if I do it that night.  How about you?  Are you counting your blessings?  Do you write them down?  It really does help lift your spirits to remember the many things you have to be thankful for each day.

Here is my list from the past couple weeks.  I continually find that I forget to take pictures even though I usually have my phone/camera with me.  I’m thankful that my thanks can still be given even if I don’t have a picture!

724. Lunch with Kathy at another furlough first – White Castle.  Thanks for her faithful service to the Lord over the years!

725. Mexican dinner with great long-time friends.

726. Gracious friends hosting us.

727. Time to sort and organize our packed stuff better.

728. A fun dinner with a couple of friends from high school days.  Watching Olympic  gold medal Volleyball with them was icing on the cake!

729. A taste experience – breaded tenderloin and sweet potato fries.  An interesting combo, but yummy in my tummy!

730. Rain for this drought stricken area.

731. A day trip with Dad and Mom to see Aunt Teeny.

732. Pizza with Matt and Bailey Roberts.

733. Happy Birthday to my OLDer brother, Mark!

734. Time with my Great Aunt Marjorie.

735. Hard goodbyes to family.

736. Seeing cousins and catching up!

737. A scenic drive through the country.

738. Driving with a trailer for the first time – very thankful I didn’t have to back up with it!

739. Catching up with Mike and Ruth!  (more cousins!)

 740. The wonders of technology!  My slides worked at church and I could see them progress as I spoke.

741. A great time of singing some wonderful old hymns.

742. Fun visiting and answering questions at FCC, Sullivan, IL.

743. A long day driving home – made it about 10:30 PM.  Dad helped and that made it better!

744. A good book to read when I wasn’t driving.

745. Sleeping in my own bed!

746. Sleeping in the next day.

747. The beauty that is Colorado all around me.

748. Picking up my car from church.

749. No problems with my endoscopy!  Throat stretched and praying it stays that way.

750. Mark’s 3 places broken collar bone wired and screwed to a bar inserted on his collar bone so he can heal properly yesterday and still doing well from the surgery.

751. Long afternoon nap after being “lightly” sedated for the endoscopy and still ready to sleep at bedtime.

752. Dinner with some fun people – Dad, Mom, Rob and Kathy Lee Taylor.

753. Michael Card’s part of the concert was full of fabulous old and new songs.

754. A MAZE ING Phil Keaggy!  Phil’s fingers furiously flew over frets and strings! :)

755. My unintentionally screw studded tire was fixed for free!

756.  Our home phone not fixed, but the phone man was friendly and tried hard.

757. Sun’s rays streaming in the window to warm my toes.

758. A visit to Idaho Springs, CO.

759. A babbling brook.

760. Beaujos’ Pizza - Colorado style pizza.

761. Catching up with the Millers (Warren, Anne and Steve) over Pizza.

Gifts in church

762. A great group of youth led our worship service this morning.

763. Great songs chosen and we all made a joyful noise to the Lord!

764. A fun lunch with the Gramms and Theides.

765. Happy 70^th birthday to my Dad!

766. A small part of my room sorted.  I found my library card that I left here for safe keeping.

767. Watching Mom at work and helping her bring uniform things into the post office so she can sell them.

As you can read, the Lord has blessed me abundantly these past few weeks.  How about you?  I’d love to hear from you.   

I've linked up with Ann

Gifts Galore

The past two weeks have been so full of gifts it is hard to choose which ones to highlight in this post.  I spent a wonderful week in Colorado Springs with the Academy Christian Church family.  I enjoyed getting to spend time with their children for their week of vacation Bible school.  I also had a wonderful time getting to know several families better as I was hosted for meals and a place to stay.  After that week, I spent a week way ‘up north’ in Boulder Junction, Wisconsin.  My extended family shares a couple of small cabins on the shore of Boulder lake.  I have not been up to the cabin since I was 12.  I had a lovely week there with my parents, brother and niece.

These weeks have been full of a variety of amazing gifts from God.  As I continue with my counting of the gifts I want to share a small portion of those gifts with you.  This is a wonderful way of bringing my focus into the present moment and keeping me thankful no matter what happens in the day.  I encourage you to try it.  Just list a couple of gifts each day and you may find you are much more thankful at the end of the day.

680. Pajama day at VBS.  Such cute kids!

681. Seven Falls visit and seeing several sights around Co. Springs.

682. Dinner with the Mangels at Jose Muldoons.  I think Jose was a little confused about his roots :), but the food was great.

683. Western day at VBS and a fun day talking about Turkana food and play.

684. Taco Bell lunch – My first since being home -Tasty!

685. Fun wandering around the Broadmoor grounds with Diane Meyer and getting frozen yogurt for dessert.

686. A delicious dinner and fun visit with the Holts.

687. Getting all the pictures I needed for VBS.

688. Super hero and princess day.  So many cute ideas.

capes and shields

 689. A good trip home to Conifer and back to Co. Springs with no problems.

690. Hawaiian day and a good closing at VBS.

691.  A very lavish offering from the kids for the work in Turkana!

692. I made it to Indianapolis by plane without getting bumped off the overbooked flight.

693. Laundry done and ready to be packed for the trip to WI tomorrow.

694. A fun picnic with Milligan alumni at the Indians’ baseball game.  So good to see several friends there!

695. “Take me out to the ballpark!  Take me out to the game!”  Indians won the game and I had peanuts in my Cracker Jacks.  :)

696. Mark had a dental emergency, but we were still able to leave for our road trip to Wisconsin in good time.

697. Another first for this furlough – Arbys for lunch – Yum.

698. We got to the cabin late, but our beds were made.  I loved this fun old bushel basket in the bathroom.

699. A first real look in sunlight at the cabin.  A cute little place That is smaller than I remember it.

700. We got stocked up for the week at the grocery store in Minoqua.

701. Several signs pointing the way to the Pottenger Cabins.  It was fun to see our name along with others at the intersections of roads up here.

702. The beautiful lake and tall trees reaching for the sky.

703. The ‘Sermon on the Mount” rock and the walk there I took with Dad and Mark as we wandered through our memories.

That's Mark up on the rock - it is huge!

 704. The sweet sound of the loon on the lake.

705. Little Bohemia and the Aberdeens visited.  They feature in U.S. history and in the movie ‘Public Enemy.’

bullet holes from the shootout 

706. A visit to a Cranberry bog.  Things grow in some amazing places!

707. Exploring Boulder Junction town.

 708. Wind rustling the leaves, trees and my hair.

709. A very nice bike ride with Mark and Indy.

710. Mark able to laugh with the people in the ER as they checked out his broken collar bone.

711. A good day just enjoying the Lord and His Creation.

712. Re-packing and getting ready to leave tomorrow.  Savoring the time spent here.

713. A fun fish fry and desserts with the Foster family.

714. A red full moon sighted on the way back to the cabin.

3 gifts sitting

715. In the car watching all the white birch trees going by on our way back to IN.

716. At a table with my family all around eating lunch.

717. Pondering all God’s gifts as we travel.

718. Worshipping the Lord with my family at MPCC.

719. Lunch with long time friends and family after church.

720. Fried Pickles – a new taste experience.

721. Lunch at the Ayers Tearoom with Mom & old friends.

722. Chicken Salad from there is still delicious.

723. A hard thing to give thanks for and hard praying because of it.  It made the testimony from one of the ladies at lunch speak to the situation.  Thanks to the Lord for her words from His Word!

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be make known to God.  And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Phil 4:6&7

The Lord has been good to me these past few weeks.  How about you?  How has he been blessing you?  I’d love to hear from you.

I linked up here 

 

A Schedule for Aug & Sept

Hello all!

I am currently "Up North" in Wisconsin spending a little time with my family.  I promised a schedule for the next couple of months.  So, here it is.

Aug 5-10 Indianapolis area visiting friends and supporters
Aug 11-12 FCC of Sullivan, Illinois
Aug 13 On the road again headed towards Denver and my parents' home
Aug 14 - 21 In the denver area for medical check-ups and visiting with GMCC
Aug 22-30 Oregon to visit Trent CC in Dexter and some other friends in the area
Aug 31-Sept 2 or 3 in Colorado then on the road again to Indiana
Sept 9 FRCC in Flat Rock, IN
Sept 16 BSCC in Blue Springs, MO
Sept 22 - 25 Missions fair at ACC in Colorado Springs, CO

Sometime the week of Sept 25 I will head to Johnson City, TN.  I hope to base there and visit my other churches from there.  I will be in Canton, OH Oct 21st at PCC.

My schedule for Oct and beyond is still in process.  I will post it when I get it firmed up a little more.  I will be in the States until May, so I hope to be able to see as many people as possible. If I am in your area and you would like to get together, please contact me and we will see what we can set up.

I hope this helps.