I Had Such an Exceptional Day on Sunday

On Sunday Stacy and Rob Moltz, along with their children Samara and Makiya,  and I made the trip to Plano, Texas to hear Canon Andrew White, the Vicar of Baghdad speak.  He was speaking at Christ Church, there in Plano, and the service was quite amazing.

The music was tremendous, and included a violin solo of the theme from the movie Schindler's List, and I have never heard such beautiful violin music.  Brother Andrew gave away two of the devices which his ministry in Iraq is presenting to those persecuted Christians who have lost everything.  It was, I know, of such importance to those who received it.  The Christians of Iraq have lost everything in this present tragedy taking place in their country, including their Bibles, which have been confiscated and burned.  The device was a solar powered electronic Bible, which also would use sound to read aloud the Bible to the listener.  Our own Makiya received one of those gifts, and was so thrilled.

Brother Andrew spoke from a text in Romans which is among my favorites:

¹⁷ and if children, also heirs—heirs of God and coheirs with Christ—seeing that we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.

From Groans to Glory

¹⁸ For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is going to be revealed to us. 

Certainly the Christians of all the Middle East are suffering at this time, and when they mourn, we mourn with them.  It was so moving to hear Brother Andrew pray in Aramaic, the language in which Jesus preached to the multitudes.  He spoke of the joy in which his congregation worship  on Sundays, despite the circumstances they find themselves enduring.  He told of how they proclaim, "when everything is taken away, still we have Jesus."  He told also of the broken hearts of  the people who have lost loved ones in horrific acts of violence committed by ISIS.  He told of how the children of one Christian family were told they must renounce their faith or die, and those children refused and were killed and their bodies ran over with heavy equipment in front of their parents.  May God deliver the world from such calloused violence quickly!  Daily I spend time in prayer for the Christians of Iraq, and I pray for those who are left behind, not those who have been martyred,  for they go immediately to our Lord in Heaven, never again to know sorrow, pain, death, or fear.  It is those who remain, who must deal with the atrocities inflicted upon these gentle people with whom I grieve. 

As always Brother Andrew's attention was drawn to the children in the congregation, and both Samara and Makiya were so impressed with the message and moved at the plight of Christians in Iraq, understanding that their persecution is because of their faith in God.  It is always impressive to anyone who learns that the Christians in the Mosul area are the reminent of the church established by Jonah, as in Jonah and the great fish, at Nineveh, so many thousands of years ago. 

Not only did we get to see Brother Andrew, but my dear Sister Sarah was there and we had such joy in meeting in person for the first time.  Brother Andrew has promised to come to Houston to see us, and our local NBC affiliate will be interviewing him, so if you live in the area plan to watch.  He also will be speaking at  churches in the area.   As Makiya kept telling his dad, "we are going to need to get some bigger churches."  

 

Do Not Miss This It Will Be Good!

                          There are snakes and other dangerous things out there.

http://www.stratfor.com/video/series-preview-personal-security#axzz3D8icdhD7

Go To This Site For Important Information on the Islamic State

I find this site to consistently provide real information on the situation in Iraq, as well as accurate information on significant issues the world over.


 http://www.stratfor.com/video/conversation-containing-vs-destroying-islamic-state#axzz3D2nWt3JY

No Matter Where You Live, or What You Believe, They Are Coming for YOU!

I am publishing a link to a story that keeps me from sleeping.  This breaks my heart, and as difficult as it is to publish this, I have to, for the sake of us all.  Evil has boiled up from out of hell, and it is shaking it's fist in defiance of the entire world!  We must do all we can... prayer, and doing whatever God lies on your heart is not optional...  These Yizidi women and girls are growing too tired and brokenhearted to go on. 

The terrorists have given these women and girls their cell phones, and then  encouraged them to tell all the world what is happening to them.  Of course the reason this is being done is to strike fear in YOUR heart.  Their message is: they are coming for you, and you will embrace what they tell you to embrace, live as they tell you to live, or die...

As the young 17 year old girl expresses, many things are worse than death!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iraq/11080165/Yazidi-girl-tells-of-horrific-ordeal-as-Isil-sex-slave.html 

Super Moon Over Soldier's Heart Ranch

 

 

The First Chapter of My Book, Second Half

“Children’s talent to endure stems from their ignorance of alternatives."   Maya Angelou

There were also many pleasant memories for him of childhood, and skills that he gained from both his parents that would help him to achieve success at all he put his hand to.   They both were possessed of especially productive work ethics, and early on conveyed the principles of this most important life skill  to him.  He buried all the negative elements his parents forced on his childhood, choosing instead to dwell on whatever positive traits such as their work ethics, love of music, and his father’s knowledge of tools and his talent in their use.  He relentlessly gleaned everything good he could find in both of them into his storehouse of information.  So when early into their relationship, the woman who sat beside on the car seat that day, had first began her probing questions about his childhood, he had answered reluctantly at first.  Desiring to preserve only positive remembrances, and not realizing that this strategy at times, crippled his ability to accurately assess situations and people, he wanted to hold back negative facts concerning his parents and their character.  He at first found this digging in his mind that his wife persistently did uncomfortable, but strangely to him, it built between them a relationship like none he had known.  It left him with a new kind of peace as each bit of information was pulled from him, examined by his adult and now experienced and confident mind, as well as her gentle and loving one, and finally pardoned and released.  For so long he had held these thoughts in the confinement of the recesses of this mind to prevent their running rampant in his life and doing damage.  He had not realized that in the light of his personal success and achievement, they no longer held any threat, for he had overcome all of them, and there was no longer any need to imprison them.  Once she had opened the flood gates of the negative memories, he was able to gain insights that would serve him well.  By the time he discussed with his wife that day what the general had said, she had already helped to tear down many of the old walls constructed to hold these threats of his childhood.   This had  exposed him to the harsh reality that sometimes people you looked up to failed miserably, no matter how much you desired them not to.  So on that day as she earnestly advised him that the general’s words were inaccurate, he could evaluate the situation, the general’s words, and those of his new wife, and come to the same conclusion as his wife.  However, he still could not bring himself at that point, to consider that this man he had long admired, could possibly be capable of the corruption he would later uncover.

As he had stood as a five - year- old boy that day in the street, while his mother told him how she could not stand to look at him, because he was so much like his father, and was nothing but contemptible in her sight, his only defense was to willfully forget her words.  She had further pronounced she was taking him to live with his father as soon as she packed his clothes.  Over and over in childhood he would use this skill of forgetting her harsh words, she was after all, his mother.  She would berate him often for her entire life, even as she watched his many significant personal accomplishments, which seemed only to bring out her ire toward him even more.   Often she would verbally attribute his success to unwarranted “luck,” refusing to acknowledge, it was in fact, his own hard work and devotion that resulted in his triumphs.  Whenever he experienced some trial, it seemed she viewed him more favorably for awhile, at least until he overcame it.   Later he was able to realize this favor came from her realization of her own profound failures in life, and her ability to console herself with the notion that in fact, he was fallible too.  For her his accomplishments seemed to only point out how little she ever became, despite her own intelligence and talents, and all she had lost, especially the love of his father, who remained the only man she ever truly desired.  When his father had left, his mother had fought savagely to get him back, but in what the colonel now realized was wisdom, his father had resisted returning to his mother.  The colonel knew his father always loved his mother deeply, but in the fear of what they would do to one another, had the strength to leave.  It would torment his mother for all her days that he became a better man after leaving her.  She would partner with many men for short periods of time as he was growing up, but always find them lacking, and carelessly dispose of them without any regard or thought of their feelings.

His mother had come from her own difficult childhood.  By age nine, she had lost both parents, and two brothers were lost to her in WWII.  At fourteen years of age, she began working in a hosiery factory in Kentucky, but despite her lack of education and sophistication, her beauty and passion afforded her opportunities.   In fact, the squandering of those opportunities, in pursuit of her passions, fueled the resentment and bitterness with which she lived her life from the time of his birth.  He told his wife in one of her sessions in which she relentlessly probed his mind, how his mother had been married to the vice-president of Walters Plumbing Equipment, a huge and successful company.  He explained that his father was an uneducated and illiterate soldier from New Orleans when he met his mother and stole her heart while stationed at Ft. Campbell, Kentucky.  His mother’s passions had ruled her life, and she had left the wealthy man to whom she was married, and followed his father back to Louisiana, bringing her small daughter with her.  The pregnancy which resulted in his birth, would soon have told the wealthy man of his mother’s infidelity.  The only evidence of the wealth that she had left in order to marry his father that the colonel had ever known of, was the custom made mink coat that his mother wore on special occasions.

The depression and resentment, that was to rule the rest of his mother’s life, came from the fact that, despite her leaving wealth and prestige for the soldier from Louisiana who never learned to read or write, she could not hold him.  The things that had attracted his mother to his father, called to him when they returned to New Orleans to marry, and he would party and drink until all hours of the night, leaving his new wife alone at home with a newborn son.  As soon as the colonel was old enough to be left with his older half sister, his mother began attending the bars along with his father.   Even that could not keep him, and as the realization of this gripped his mother, her own weaknesses led to behaviors that provoked the violence of his father.  The arguments were loud and long, and lacked any reason on either of their parts.  More frequently than not, his mother would pursue the issue, hounding and hounding at his father, until in a fit of rage and alcoholic haze, he would hit her with his fists, doing physical damage.  Even then, sometimes in her resentment, she would continue to provoke his rage purposely; the colonel had never understood this. 

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

"There are some among us who live in rooms of experience we can never enter”  John Steinbeck

He stood in the middle of the street, completely immobile, unable for some time to move.  There he struggled to suppress the words from his consciousness that he had just heard from his mother’s mouth.  Whatever small trespass he had committed was a lost thought.   Her words were so cruel, that for the rest of his life he would never recall what he had done that day, or any detail concerning the incident, only her words.   Those words she had shouted would sometimes threaten at the edges of his mind at the most unexpected times, usually when he was relaxing, and especially when he observed young families of soldiers.  He had been innocently playing some childhood game, being the child he was, and so seldom allowed to be.  She had come running from the house in a rage over something he had done or not done, and at the end of her chastisement, she wounded his child’s heart with a wound that would never quite heal.

Now For the Second Half of the Introduction to My Book

"I believe a strong woman may be stronger than a man, particularly if she happens to have love in her heart. I guess a loving woman is indestructible." John Steinbeck,  East of Eden. 

Her husband had achieved the rank of colonel when he was selected to command the 2nd Brigade.  His being educated at West Point, and the Army War College, was not the only reason she had known she would always be second place in his life when she had married him, just a few months before.  It was not only that his formal education had been in these bastions of military tradition and the teaching of the art and science of war.  It was his childhood, or rather, lack of childhood and parenting, that fostered his love and loyalty to the Army.  Where his biological parents had failed in every way to meet the needs of his childhood, he found stability and structure in the Army.  Beginning with first The Boy Scouts, and then JROTC in high school, he had found strong men of deep character to mentor him, and had developed direction for his life.  


The appointment to The Academy had offered him the chance of a destiny beyond the emotional and physical deficiencies and need he had known growing up in Louisiana.  Even more than that, his education had provided him with identity and purpose in his life.  He owed, in his mind, the United States Army in the way that a son owed his parents.   As he served, he had found in the Army the only security and reliability that did not fail him as two previous marriages, along with the neglected and abused childhood had.  Today, that relationship had revealed itself as fallible as all the others of his life had been, and a wound much like that of seeing for the first time weakness in a beloved parent, struck him.  However, being the man he was, the shell shock of the day’s events would only last momentarily.  The survival techniques, he had first learned as he hid in the closet of the war zone of his childhood home, and which the Army had hewn to professional levels, would rise up in him and in his mind a defense plan would be formulated.


That would not happen in the car as they drove to the hotel, because being the man of honor and dedication he was, his first reaction was to ruthlessly self examine.   He assumed his superior to be the leader that a two star general  should be, and he would continue for several months, to steadfastly believe him to be.  As he detailed to his wife the hour and a half long tirade leveled at him by MG Tim Harold, her mind turned over each sentence as he spoke it.  At first, she assumed that her husband’s take on the whole dressing down, had to be correct, because he was the one with twenty five years of dedicated service.  After he had continued to relate that he had obviously failed horribly in leadership for several minutes, as revealed by the general’s words, her mind began whispering, “wait a minute here.”   This made no sense to her, she thought, “I was at every Battle Assembly for the last year, I know the atmosphere, and I know from the Soldiers themselves, too much of their very positive thoughts.”  


While her FRG office was far down the hall, and she seldom had time to leave
t, Soldiers often drifted in and out on business, or just to chat.  The unit had not experienced an individual dedicated to this volunteer position, which she had assumed, and they seemed sincerely to appreciate her efforts.  The position had proved full of duties that required not only every hour of the Battle Assembly weekends, but several additional hours every week.  Still even at the far end of the hall, absorbed in her own work, she had developed a strong sense of the “command climate” of the unit.  


Their relationship had developed rapidly.  He had found in her a truly listening ear, and his basic trusting nature, which had left him vulnerable so many times in life, had at last found a citadel for his most guarded and tightly held thoughts.  He had spent many hours in their expression to her.  Beyond that, she had the benefit of the “pillow talk” of the man she so admired.  His personal concern for each member of his unit, and for Soldiers serving everywhere, were often his last words of the evening to her before those three that she held sweetest, as he drifted into the deep sleep of one possessed of a guiltless conscious.
 

At times, it was hard for her to know in her mind whether she loved him more, or admired him more.  Certainly, as she listened, it became more and more obvious that something about this entire incident was not quite right.  Also, events of the previous few months began to knit themselves together in the background of her sub-conscious.  She stopped him mid-sentence and told him so, and his eyes, which she had always found to appear so deeply searching when he looked at her, moved quickly back and forth.  As he intently stared at her, she knew his mind searched hers for the hope of validity in her assertion.   In this action, she found yet again deep admiration for this confident, highly intelligent, and accomplished man, who so faithfully served, that he would consider that the allegations leveled at him might contain merit.  As admiration swept over her, in equal measure love surged in her heart, and the two emotions struggled for their balanced places in her mind.  Perhaps she did admire him even more than she loved him, her heart answered quickly; she loved him more.

Do We Still Have the Moral Courage

Do we still have the moral courage and resolve
to do what is necessary to retain our liberty?

The world is so full of threat that sooner or later,
 we will have to make that decision.

A Few of My Own Thoughts on Russia

Words Worth Noting Concerning the Leadership of the World

Everywhere I look, the world is in turmoil.  I look at the video on the nightly news of little children pouring across the border of Mexico through Texas into my country, and I try to imagine what would compel me as a mother to send my child unaccompanied by an adult into another country where the message of that's country's government is "DO NOT COME, YOU WILL ONLY BE SENT BACK."

Beautiful Wild Flowers and an Old House Down the Road

What a beautiful spring and summer!

The Third Video From Iraq

Here is the third video in the series made about the work of Canon Andrew White and his work in Baghdad and across the Middle East.

                       http://www.vice.com/vice-special/the-vicar-of-baghdad-part-3-921

Albert Einstein Said It Best

I am watching Iraq more carefully than most folks for several reasons, the first being my husband's three and a half years of service there.  Our friendship and deep respect for Canon Andrew White, and the work for God he is doing, and the people of Iraq which he is involved iin ministering to has touched my soul, and created in me my own yearning for the people of Iraq to know peace and prosperity. Those people of Iraq whom I have formed relationships with that have been supported by Internet communication, have come to mean so much to me, and their fate hangs in the air.  It is looking dark to me in Iraq.

Another component which compels my heart and soul has to do with the men and women of the Coalition Forces who have given so much, several from my own family, including a son-in-law seriously wounded.  Their families too have had their lives and personal security affected greatly as their loved ones served.

The Sunni and the Kurds have walked out of the Parliament in Iraq, and things are not looking good in Iraq.  Once again the reasons being revealed for this present state of affairs will lead back to corrupt people being allowed to continue in their corruption.  In all of civilized time, that has always led to failure to thrive...

I think I will be writing from my own observations and conclusions, what I see as the pitfalls which have brought Iraq to this dark place.  Always it seems to me, failure lies in lack of honorable leadership, leadership which is willing to speak the truth, really examine what is going on, and take the actions necessary to deal with the evil elements always present in our world.

The world is a dangerous place to live - not because of the people who are evil but because of the people who don't do anything about it.
-- Albert Einstein

Here is the Second Video From Brother Andrew

This is the second video in a series of three about the work of Canon Andrew White of the Anglican Church of England, who pastors St. George's Church in Baghdad, Iraq. We should each watch with the mind of all God has blessed us with, and how so many suffer the world around, especially in Iraq.  God help the people of Iraq!

                 http://www.vice.com/vice-special/the-vicar-of-baghdad-part-2-141

For His Glory!

There is a young person of influence I know very well who must remain a covert Christian or they will not long survive. This person is in Iraq, and along with their family, this person is in grave danger. I am trying to find ways to show this person that Christians from around the world are praying for them. I know that if I were in this person's situation, I would need my Christian friends to support me, and I would need and desire the prayers of the people. Please, pray for my friend and their family and post here that you are, and share this post, so that the person can come to my page and see a sea of messages of support through prayer for a gravely difficult time for all the people of Iraq. Please pass this message to every person you know to be a true Christian who is a prayer warrior, that you know. Our God inhabits praise, and His power and glory are released when in praise and worship we lift our petitions before His throne! Please, join me in supporting the many Christians in Iraq whose lives are in grave peril. This isn't one of those chain type silly and emotional "spiritual" things, Only if you recognize it for what it is should you participate, and that recognition will come to you through the Holy Spirit.

More Confessions

Remember my blog post about the house I remodeled, and I wasn't feeling up to par while I was doing it either, I am so proud of my work.  Here are more pictures, before and after: 

My first color choice for the fireplace made it look like a monster with a big gaping mouth, even with my addition of tile to the mantel piece.  I had to rethink, and this antique white was a much better idea! Paint color choices are everything in remodeling! More of the living area later!

The Situation in Iraq is Desperate

Pray for the People of Iraq and those from other countries who live and work in Iraq!

http://www.stratfor.com/sample/situation-report/iraq-militants-raid-turkish-consulate-mosul-seize-48-people 

What a Magnificent Woman

To be driving at 92 is remarkable in itself, but what happens at Walmart is simply amazing.

http://faithtap.com/420/grandma-witnesses-to-robber/#t/420/ 

How sweet her voice is, and how firm and sure her faith is!

McKenna Says God Lives Here

For a period of time my grand-daughter and her siblings lived at the Ranch with Randy and I, and we have always had a very close relationship.  She loves to come and visit us.  She has a special feeling about being here, as do so many people.  Recently a female veteran who lived at the ranch along with her daughter made the following comment, "We shall see you soon ...We enjoyed being at the ranch, I felt like nothing could hurt me there."  That is a common line of thought by all who visit, but our grand-daughter expressed it best...

As Randy always says, it is a place to "stand down."  I am not sure why, but it has always been a place of God's favor.  My little grand-daughter McKenna said it best when she arrived for a visit.  She said, "Nana, do you know why I love coming to the ranch so much?" I told her no, and asked her why she loved it.  She said, "Because God lives here."  She will be going to second grade this year I believe.

Psalms 91

¹ The one who lives under the protection of the Most High
dwells in the shadow of the Almighty.

² I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust.”

³ He Himself will deliver you from the hunter’s net,
from the destructive plague.
⁴ He will cover you with His feathers;
you will take refuge under His wings.
His faithfulness will be a protective shield.
⁵ You will not fear the terror of the night,
the arrow that flies by day,
⁶ the plague that stalks in darkness,
or the pestilence that ravages at noon.
⁷ Though a thousand fall at your side
and ten thousand at your right hand,
the pestilence will not reach you.
⁸ You will only see it with your eyes
and witness the punishment of the wicked.

⁹ Because you have made the Lord—my refuge,
the Most High—your dwelling place,
¹⁰ no harm will come to you;
no plague will come near your tent.
¹¹ For He will give His angels orders concerning you,
to protect you in all your ways.
¹² They will support you with their hands
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.
¹³ You will tread on the lion and the cobra;
you will trample the young lion and the serpent.

¹⁴ Because he is lovingly devoted to Me,
I will deliver him;
I will protect him because he knows My name.
¹⁵ When he calls out to Me, I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble.
I will rescue him and give him honor.
¹⁶ I will satisfy him with a long life
and show him My salvation.