Do you know your neighbors?

Last spring, our pastor asked us what we are doing in our own neighborhoods to grow relationships that could point our neighbors to JESUS. To point them to the One who loves them more than they could ever hope or imagine being loved.

I was struck dumb when I thought about it.

Most of our neighbors save the ones on either side or below us I don’t even know. I know some of their names and would recognize their faces maybe but that is as far as it goes. I decided to pray for ideas about what I might do and decided to resurrect our outdated neighborhood directory, penned before we arrived in 2003.

I put a letter in everyone’s mailbox inviting them to join. With the responses I made a spread sheet and email group, then printed and laminated a hardcopy. Next, I rolled the sheets, tied them with ribbon and put one in every mailbox, weather they signed up or not. At first, only half the residents joined, once they saw it many more did.

Having an updated directory has been so great to warn each other about thieving foxes, menacing bears and mountain lions prowling about. We have used it to secure house sitters and baby sitters, to borrow eggs and share holiday sentiments.

Then last fall, just before Thanksgiving, a band of burglars invaded our street. In one night at least 6 houses were affected. If we hadn’t had the directory, we wouldn’t have known each other had been hit. When the police came they listened to everyone’s account of the events and cautioned us that it sounded like the thieves were casing the place. Trying to see how easy it would be to gain entry. The officers warned the burglars might come back and really load up.

In the weeks following, we’ve been amazed to watch our community. On our way home one afternoon a truck with a trailer parked at the end of our cul-de-sac. I stopped and politely asked the men standing there what they were doing. One of the men looked at me with a puzzled expression and said they were renovating the house they were parked in front of. From their faces, I knew they had been asked that question before.

Ryan to the South of us, installed security cameras pointing up and down our street so anyone who enters will have their license plate recorded.

Everyone is more friendly and talkative. We have all been keeping an eye pealed for any unfamiliar vehicles or individuals.

Seems funny that GOD would prompt me to renew our neighborhood directory just a few months before it would be a GODSEND? This experience has been a great reminder to me that He is all knowing, all powerful and all in control. And He has our backs.

I am trying to be a better listener to His prompts on my heart.  We are hoping to have a get together in the spring and invite the whole neighborhood crew.

How about you? Do you know your neighbors? The mission field is ripe for the harvest but the workers are few. It’s not necessary to go to Africa to be a missionary.

Come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest! ~JESUS

Did you ever feel like you are running on a tread mill with no end in sight? Nothing really accomplished for all your effort? I think sometimes we get ourselves so busy we can’t possibly think anything else.

Sometimes our over commitments are by our own making…saying yes to more things than there are hours in a day to complete. I am famous for this one. My sister once gave me a book for Christmas with the title: Learning How to Say NO. But sometimes it is the product of circumstances. In the last month, I have had four people who are very dear to me in the hospital, three of them all at once.  In either scenario, whether by your own doing or the circumstances, the result can be the same. Feeling like you are pulled in half or maybe fourths or maybe even tenths.

I am learning after many years of tread milling that even when we didn’t choose the ride, we can survive it. Jesus said come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Matthew 11:28 http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+11:28&version=NIV  I have found that if I really come to Him and lay it at his feet, I can have peace in my heart even if my body is racing from hospital to hospital and phone update to phone update. Sometimes I remember and do it and sometimes I run in a million directions for a while before the HOLY SPIRIT taps me on the shoulder and reminds me that there is a safe harbor, a peaceful refuge for my weary heart.

I am looking forward to the day when I will automatically come to Him first and lay it at his feet before mine are even in the starting blocks for the day.

Today I am praying for you the peace that passes understanding, the ability to turn to Him and the desire to be in His lap more than anything else you desire.

GOD SPEED!

Some years it just seems like the bugs are bigger and meaner and more plentiful than others. A few years ago, when our oldest was a senior the swine flu infiltrated our home. Sickness abounded! It was awful!
The doctor’s office just said yea they have the flu. Drink lots of fluids and rest, took our co pay and sent us on our way. :0( We were needing serious help to get well. Lots to do as a senior and soooo sick.
The next morning my dear friend Charlene appeared in our door way with armloads of soup and bread and all these homeopathic remedies that turned out to be amazing. Since it is flu season and I keep hearing from friends who are under the weather I am forwarding the list of things that work for us. We hardly ever get sick these days, PRAISE THE LORD, but when we do it is usually a doosie!
I am including the email I sent out to our friends after we had recovered from the illness. It explains what happened and how her suggestions helped us!
So do drink lots of Kangen water, take your Juice Plus and try some of these if you do get sick.
GOD SPEED!
From 2009
Hi All,
Ok.
So Matthew and Micah had a brush with the back to school bugs already but Martin got nailed! Sore throat, headache, aches, fatigue, 103.2 for days on end, etc.
He has now missed a week of school and has 3 AP classes and one month left to finish his Eagle Scout Requirements. Please pray!

After the doctor said there was nothing they could do to help, my dear friend Charlene gave me all this great homeopathic stuff. In a day Martin is feeling much better. She researches everything to the nth degree. Everything she has ever recommended has worked. I just thought I would share since I have heard of so many who are sick too!

The deal is that if you can do these things the instant you start to feel like you are coming down with something it works MUCH better. These seem to be helping to shorten his stay in sick land, if we could have given it to him at the onset he might not have had to go there at all.

I started coming down with a sore throat and headache yesterday and I jumped right on it. I am going to keep taking it all for a few more days but I think I dodged the bullet!
Hope it works for you too!
Martin was skeptical, didn’t want any “witch doctor” remedies so Char provided us with the scripture to back it up, free of charge! He really likes feeling better!

Liz Cowen Furman
lizcowenfurman@gmail.com

To God Be All Glory!

HERE IS THE LIST:
I have been told that any of them that you can get Certified Organically Grown are better.

***Oil of Thieves-Thieves Young Living Oil, mix a few drops with olive or Safflower oil (about a teaspoon)and apply to chest/back and throat, put a few drops in the humidifier. Smells great and kills germs in the air while keeping your humidifier from growing bad germs. Check out the story of where it came from origionally on the recipe page. eew!
YoungLiving.org/Oils4Wellness
Two other sites I found…www.RockyMountainOils.com; www.Amazon.com/Health

Recipe for Theives Oil:

http://www.quantumbalancing.com/news/thieves_oil.htm

Eucalyptus Oil-add a few drops to the humidifier.

http://www.organicinfusions.com/eucalyptusradiata225.html?gclid=CK3zyODI-ZwCFREhDQodwlDFbA

or the health food store.

Elderberry Tea–Take dried elderberries 1/4 cup simmer in water 10-15 min. strain and drink.
This is an anti-viral herb (VERY useful) You can also simmer in water/strain then mix juice with 1/2 cup of honey. Put in the fridge and take as a syrup, stays good for 2 weeks and you can take it if you feel anything attacking you.
Get loose leaf, any health food store would carry. Tastes a bit like raisins, sweeten with a dab of honey if you want.

Astragalus Root-add to chicken broth. I cooked the whole chicken or pieces with the bone in, in by pressure cooker with 1-2 roots, added a clove of garlic(cut up), one onion cut up, 3 stocks chopped celery until the meat was falling off the bone. I used the broth in chicken soup but made extra and froze in an ice tray so i could pop out a little bit for whoever is feeling sick, and heat it up. I also plan to add a cube or two to other things I cook during the flu season. Also, the cooked chicken I used in shepherd’s pie (my kid’s favorite) and other recipes that call for cooked chicken.

Juice Plus-17 Raw fruits and veggies with the water, sugar and salt taken out. What is left is in capsule form and has had a profound effect on our families health.

Kangen Water by Enagic- Ionized, microclustered, alkaline, filtered water. Changed our lives!!!!

Verses to back it up:

Fruit trees of all kinds will grow on both banks of the river. Their leaves will not wither, nor will their fruit fail. Every month they will bear, because the water from the sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing.” Ezekiel 47:12

He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. Luke 10:34

Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. James 5:14
***This one really seemed to help alot! :0)

Every year, when the New Year rolls around, I find myself thinking about where I am in the world. Have I met my goals for the year? Am I where I want to be emotionally, spiritually, financially etc. Some years I find myself in a better place than others.

One year everyone was thinking about that, and a host of other things, was 1999. Remember the Y2K nonsense that was all the buzz back then? Everyone was so worried about what they should do to prepare.

Over dinner at a friend’s house, we were discussing it and planning our New Year’s Bash. Our group of friends, on my lead, hired a band and a venue and was planning the biggest New Year’s Party on record. We charged every family $100. The plan was to dance the night away. We provided food, childcare, family photos everything. The place was gorgeous after the decorating.

We figured if it really was the end of it all when the clock rolled over to midnight we would go out arm in arm singing hymns at the stroke of 12. So at midnight we sang Amazing Grace…all the verses and oddly enough everyone was still there when the song was done. No big apocalyptic anything. So we hoisted a cheer and kissed our spouses.

But before it all happened we were at that dinner talking about what we might do to prepare. Our friend John quipped,

“I think we will just fill our bathtubs with water and go to the party.”

“Ewww, would you drink water out of your bathtub?” I asked.

He said, “Don’t laugh, if our water went out for more than a day or two you would be begging me for a straw to sip out of my tub, I guarantee it.”

Everyone hooted with laughter (and filled our tubs before leaving to the party).

All the hype started me pondering. Did you know that most of the things we worry about never happen? We waste all that energy and time thinking about, pining about, and fretting about things that never materialize. So, I’m thinking this year with all the hype about 2012 being the end I will just sit back and have a toast to 2012.

I might however fill my tub before we go out. :0) After all, a boy scout is prepared and we have several in our house.

Hope you have a Blessed 2o12! One where you can rely totally on the LORD for all that concerns you today. He is able to handle it. HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Several years ago my mother-in-love and I hosted a table at our church’s “Holly Day Tea.” Thus named for our pastor’s wife Holly. We actually hosted a table every year for nearly 16 years but one particular one lives in infamy.  It is the one we always come back to when recounting our decade and a half of hostessing.

For eleven months we planned our table. We took great pains to make it beautiful. You see, at our teas everyone that hosted a table brought their Christmas finery from home. The white table cloth provided for us by our church made the table into a blank artist’s palate.

One year we did a teddy bear theme and gave each guest at our table a tiny teddy bear with moveable arms holding a little sign we made commemorating the year and the tea. One year we used Muff’s collection of Tea Leaf dishes from the 1800s. Very cool. That year we gave little containers of tea that matched the guilt of the dishes perfectly. We spent hours planning every detail. It was so fun to find the perfect little keepsake in July at some close out sale as that is how we did it. Very frugal we two.

We really enjoyed doing it together. It was a hoot to sit and plan the next year’s table. In January or February when things are slow and we had time, we would choose the dishes then spend the rest of the year in search for the perfect centerpiece and ten little gifts to give our guests. I always bought the tickets for our table and invited friends that I thought might attend a church function but not go to an actual church service. It was my birthday present to JESUS. Fun outreach.

One year we used Dave’s Grandmother’s Franciscan Apple Dishes. They were beautiful. For a center piece we used the apple dish tower serving plates with exotic chocolates from some distant land and flowers. Of course we always had candles. Ahh candles, don’t they just set the mood. Don’t they just make the ambiance so soothing and Christmassy?

Well they usually do. That year one of the candles happened to be right near me. (Never a good idea.) We ate the delicious food that Peggy Browne always coordinated so perfectly. The lights dimmed and we settled back to watch the entertainment. The candles on the tables twinkled and just shouted MERRY CHRISTMAS.

A few minutes into the program, much to my chagrin, my whole water glass was thrown at the table dousing me and the chocolates as well as the napkin inferno.  Hysterical laughter surrounded me. Seems when I set my napkin on the table it was a bit too close to the flame and in a minute or two ignited and went up in a blaze. Since my back was to the table watching the harpist I was oblivious.  UGH!

Now every time the subject of the Holly Day Tea comes up with ANYONE that attended, they always laugh hysterically and recount the table that went up in smoke. We’re talking a decade later.

So many life lessons in that for me; never turn your back on a flame, no matter how small. I’m thinking that applies to life too. If we ignore little flames instead of dealing with them when they are small and easy to snuff out they often become blazing infernos that are much more difficult to extinguish.

Another lesson is that sometimes the things that we consider disasters we laugh about later. I often catch myself saying to someone, “We will laugh about this someday.” (I have teen aged boys).  If we can just keep things in perspective then we can stay sane, maybe even calm in a crisis.

I used to make wedding cakes for hire. Now I just do it for friends. I could tell you some hysterical wedding stories and I always tell the brides to hope something goes wrong. Nothing dire or disastrous of course, but you’ve got to have a story. Otherwise all you can say is “We got married.” How boring is that?

Merry Christmas and remember…we will laugh about this someday! :0)

December 12, 2011

The Closer We Get the Faster it Goes.

A few weeks ago I went to the Recreation Center to pick up my youngest of three sons, a high school sophomore, Micah after his Saturday morning basketball practice. Arriving a little early I plopped down on a bleacher to watch. One half of the gym had my sons group while the other was occupied by four boys. I was mesmerized. All four had dark hair; all had black basketball shorts and white high top tennis shoes. The boys looked strikingly similar except that two were high school age and two were third graders. Each group of two was working in their half of the half gym. From where I sat the two younger boys were in front of the older ones.  As I sat watching I was struck by the thought that only minutes ago my sons were the small ones with big dreams, looking up to those high school boys. How fast the years have flown by.

My mother-in-love, Muff always said, “Once they enter school it is a snap and they are in college, so enjoy every minute.” A concept I could hardly believe when mine were all in diapers and she first shared that thought with me. Through the years, whenever they would give me a hard time her haunting prediction would come to mind. It helped me to remember what is important and what is not.  Now that I am on the verge of an empty nest with the last of our hatchlings in high school, I marvel at how short a time we really have here on the planet. Muff is now 85 and starting to look toward home.

Over the last few years when Christmas time rolls around she comments, “It can’t be time for another one; we just celebrated Christmas a few weeks ago.”  Oh Muff has all her faculties about her; her mind is still sharper than mine (not sure that is much of a reference). It just seems to go so much faster now. Kind of like a roll of toilet paper. The closer you get to the end the faster it goes.

So enjoy every minute you have with your little darlings or your grand darlings as in a minute we will be looking toward home. My most fervent hope is that when I cross over and arrive on JESUS lap, he will say “Well done good and faithful servant.” My hope is that I will have represented Him well, and made each of my short minutes here on the planet count.