Good news

Good news.

Aliyah slept through the night. She is eating. Isaac is on his way. God is answering prayer like he always does. ;-) Hopefully she will be out of the hospital soon. Thanks for your prayers. Please continue to pray.
Peli

Aliyah and Ariel

Aliyah and Ariel

My nephew Isaac & his wife Molly are adopting twin girls from Ethiopia. It is a miracle how they have been destined for this family. They felt that God told them they were going to have twin girls. They got the message that that would be quite unusual, that they may have to wait a very long time. Well God delivered on His promise to them. The girls were born on the 13th of January and the process has begun to bring them home.

Mommy and Daddy will be able to go get them in a couple of months, meanwhile they are being well cared for. (Please pray for this important time of their care). However, Isaac/Molly just got the news that one, Aliyah, has been taken to the hospital. It is uncertain what is wrong as of now but she stopped eating. She is on IV antibiotics. Isaac will be flying out (God willing) to meet them and attend to Aliyah.

Please pray for this special family, Isaac and Molly as they prepare, for these fragile baby girls and the 3 brothers (Judah, Eli, and Samuel) who await them to join their family.

Also: listen to the Steven Curtis Chapman song, "When love takes you in" on my sidebar.

"These are a few of my favorite things.."

I thought it would be fun to share a few of my favorite Children's books. Not in any particular order and not the only ones but the ones that come to mind right now. To me a good children's book appeals to adults as well as children; much like a really good Disney movie. My parents gave me a set of Winnie the Pooh books as a child that I never really read until one day I picked them up in college! College, mind you. I could not put them down. I cannot tell you how entertaining they were. They were little novels, not alot of pictures but I saw how they could relate on a deeper level to adults. It was a delightful experience. I often read books aloud to children, of course ,as a librarian and there was no shortage of zany, rhyming nonsense type books, however I loved the ones that did have a deeper meaning something that we could talk about afterwards.

Because of Winn Dixie is written in such a lovely way through the eyes of a child. It is quick to read, delightful all by yourself or read it to the bigger than little ones in your life. I have pushed this book on many an unwilling person who enjoyed it nonetheless! ;-) Probably more entertaining for a little older child. It is a book of feelings and perceptions. A young girl befriends "outcasts" in town where she and her pastor father are new residents.

Sweet funny tender book about an old woman who has outlived her family and friends and names ONLY the things around her that she feels certain will outlive her! She refuses to befriend a dog who visits her daily (she feeds him and looks forward to his visits)but she won't name him because she can't let him become important to her since she is afraid to give her heart away. Everyone she's loved has died. But one day the dog doesn't show up at her home and she doesn't know his name and she is devastated. In the end she decides that she has been blessed by all those who were a part of her life and that it is okay to risk loss in order to love.

I love this book because it reminds me of the limitless imagination of a child and how they look at the world differently than adults. Also tender, sweet, rhythmic, interesting. A little boy whose is best friends with an old woman (Miss Nancy Alison Delacourt Cooper who has 4 names just like he does) in a nursing home next door to his home and helps her to "regain" her memory.

A twist on the Sleeping Beauty story with someone who is beautiful inside.

Quite humorous! I've enjoyed the rewrites of old classics. You need to read the classic first if the child you are reading to doesn't know it!

Snopes.com

Andrew 12-07

I should have known better. The pictures of clouds were fun but fake. I didn't really care about that so much, they were fun pics but I thought I would make a comment about snopes.com...this is a great website to visit if you want to research whether something you get in your e-mail is true or false. I have visited there frequently when something didn't make sense to me. I looked up fake photography and they listed those clouds. However I couldn't find anything about the cat mountain which Andrew has declared very fake. Actually there should be an andrew.com because he could answer most of your questions.

(now Andrew said that sounded a bit sarcastic, did it to you?;-)
P.S. also my good friend Helen reminded me of truthorfiction.com which has a similar format.

Can you tell I love the lyrics to songs?

My sister Dixie (above) made a beautiful book of family favorite poetry for a Christmas gift for all of us this last 2007. I was pondering how I have few favorite poems partly because I never got into poetry that much. I can think of a few that have impressed me like Robert Frost "The road less travelled" or ones that were empasized in school (Sylvia Plath sticks out, or Blake's "Tiger, tiger burning bright...") but unlike my sister I never seemed to be that drawn to poetry. So what's wrong with me? I found it interesting to study in college or even as a requirement in high school but I never felt compelled to just pick up a poetry book for sheer pleasure. When I have seen how others have related to poetry I thought I was missing out somehow. I enjoy rythmn and children's books and can appreciate the colorful use of words and how they can evoke feelings etc...but I think you get what I am saying. Why have I never thought of it as something I really wanted to do? Anyway...I realized that music lyrics are poetry and I find GREAT delight in memorizing all the words to songs, being able to sing them correctly. I often will listen to something I like till it wears out the cassette, or album or cd. I know all the intonations, the correct word placement etc....

Just a thought about myself. I love being able to come to my blog and hear some of the songs I have selected. They are not necessarily all the ones I am most passionate about but what I could find from the resources available. Some playlists that work for this don't have much Christian representation! I'm grateful for what I have found. The following is by Chris Rice. He is a great lyricist, story teller. ;-) often even childlike (he ministers to children) so it combines those loves for me. Great messages for adults and children alike!

Deep Enough to Dream by Chris Rice


Lazy summer afternoon
Screened in porch and nothin' to do
I just kicked off my tennis shoes
Slouchin' in a plastic chair
Rakin' my fingers through my hair
I close my eyes and I leave them there
And I yawn, and sigh, and slowly fade away


Deep enough to dream in brilliant colors
I have never seen
Deep enough to join a billion people
For a wedding feast
Deep enough to reach out and touch
The face of the One who made me
And oh, the love I feel, and oh the peace
Do I ever have to wake up


Awakened by a familiar sound
A clumsy fly is buzzin' around
He bumps the screen and he tumbles down
He gathers about his wits and pride
And tries again for the hundredth time
'Cause freedom calls from the other side
And I smile and nod, and slowly drift away


Deep enough to dream in brilliant colors
I have never seen
Deep enough to join a billion people
For a wedding feast
Deep enough to reach out and touch
The face of the One who made me
And oh, the love I feel, and oh the peace
Do I ever have to wake up


'Cause peace is pouring over my soul
See the lambs and the lions playin'
I join in and I drink the music
Holiness is the air I'm breathin'
My faithful heroes break the bread
And answer all of my questions
Not to mention what the streets are made of
My heart's held hostage by this love
And these brilliant colors I have never seen
I join a billion people for a wedding feast
And I reach out and touch the face of the One who made me
And oh, the love I feel, and oh the peace


Do I ever have to wake up
Do I ever have to wake up
Do I ever have to wake up
Do I really have to wake up now

Pondering

Don't you just love it that a good pastor, teacher, preacher can take something you have read over and over and bring new life to it through the Holy Spirit? We have been in 1 John and just finishing the first book. Todd (pastor) was emphasing how John used the word True, three times in the second to last sentences.

1 John 5:19-20 (New International Version)
New International Version (NIV) (boldface and italics-my input)

19We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one. 20We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true—even in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.

Jesus is God "the way, the truth and the life". He is life, He is truth, He is eternal, He is real, He is genuine, He is not false, phony, or fake.
The last verse states:

1 John 5:21

21Dear children, keep(guard) yourselves from idols

When I used to read this I almost thought it seemed out of context but seeing it afresh...next to all the 'true' statements, it made sense.

Idols are false, phony, fake...they are not able to do what God can do. They also come between us and the real God. Anything that causes us to be separated from God can be an idol. Ideas even can be idolotrous. Things of course can...anything that we hold up to give us meaning, security, (peace), etc...(things only God can provide) can be idols to us. For me it can be food. Searching for calmness...or satisfaction in something that cannot provide it. Or it can be money...having just enough to feel secure. We should get our security from God not from our things/money.

Just wanted to write that down when I was pondering it. Truly the sermon, lesson, was about so much more but I wanted to write that down because I always pondered why that last verse was there. And it emphasized its truth.

And that's the truth, Ruth.

Begin the New Year with God

TOP TEN PREDICTIONS FOR 2008

1. The Bible will still have all the answers.

2. Prayer will still work.

3. The Holy Spirit will still move.

4. God will still inhabit the praises of His people.

5. There will still be God-anointed preaching.

6. There will still be singing of praise to God.

7. God will still pour out blessings upon His people.

8. There will still be room at the Cross.

9. Jesus will still love you.

10. Jesus will still save the lost.

God whispers in you soul and speaks to your mind. sometimes when you don't have time to listen, He has to throw a brick at you. It's your choice: Listen to the whisper, or wait for the brick. -Author unknown.