What an awesome New Year's Eve!

Bonnie put it really well at her blog. It was a great night. I was so happy to see people actually taking the tracts, and thanking us for them! I also ran back to the house for more tracks so I missed Vincent’s first open air. I came in for the last few words. Way to go Vincent! Like Bonnie said, a few people just didn’t ‘appreciate’ what we were doing. But, hey, there isn’t a whole lot they can do about us. : )

HAPPY NEW YEAR Y'ALL!


A view of the first night fireworks.

Since some of us are still talking about Everest and I liked Spunky's husband's analogy I'm leaving you all a link to check out.

An evil man is snared by his own sin, but a rightous one can sing and be glad. Proverbs 29:6

I'm positively giddy. The rain is melting all the snow!! And it's warm! (Sorry...I keep harping on the weather....I should find something else to blog about.....)

We talked about time this morning in devotions and how much time we waste, and what constructive things we should fill with our time so as not to waste it. So, in an effort to find our where all MY time is going I wrote down, everything I did, from right after devotions till supper. I was amazed at how much faster I went from one job to the next when I knew I was going to be able to look back on my chart and say, 'I just spent an hour deciding which job to do next, that was dumb.' Then I got to thinking. God know exactly how I spend my time. Not just today either when I was consciously working at spending it wisely, but yesterday, last week, last month, last year, and all the years of my life. It's all been recorded. Now the Bible speaks about giving an account for every idle word. (Matt. 12:36) How about time spent being idle?

Proverbs 10:4
Proverbs 12:24
Hebrews 6:12

As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. Proverbs 27:17

As I’m sitting here typing, mom is watching ‘Everest’ (as seen in the IMAX theaters). The rest of us watched it earlier. Wow! How absolutely positively incredible!! Excellent footage of the highest place on earth. Here are a few random facts surrounding Everest.

*Everest is 29,035 feet tall.
*The first man to successful reach the summit of this great, huge, massive body of rock, ice, and snow was one Ed Hillary (from Britain) and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, in 1953.
*Everest is 5 ½ miles above sea level.
*150 people have died on ascending and descending the mountain (most are still on the mountain).


One thing I noticed while watching the video was sky. It was very dark blue, almost black in some spots because they are so high up.

Incredible.

Fear the Lord and the king my son, and do not join with the rebellious, for those two will send sudden destruction upon them and who knows what calamities they can bring? Proverbs 24:21-22

Here we come a Caroling....

Bonnie asked me last night while we were out serenading the town:

"What is it like to have a name that can be used as a verb? I mean no one goes, Bonnie-ing!"

Such a heavy burden, I know, but I deal with it.

The temps here have been SO warm, in the 40-50's!!! Wow, lets go swimming or something quick before the lake freezes over again.... oh wait, there is still a little ice, maybe we could chop a hole and jump in.

I read an article last night which was dealing with where your passion is. What consumes your day and your thoughts? Does your heart overflow with praise to the Lord willingly or are you giving just lip service? Does your life reflect what you say? Are actions backing up your words? The games, the TV, and trivial pursuits, the 'fluff' activities we do, what eternal value do they have? Will we be ashamed when we see the Lord face to face?

It is interesting to think about and a good opportunity to examine your motives and thought life.

It also spoke about the doctrine (or lack of!) in Praise and Worship songs. He compared "I Love you Lord" chorus with the song "Oh How I Love Him" (to the tune, O Solo Mio). Quite a contrast.

Speaking of hymns, the words to this one have spoken to me many a times...

When I survey the wondrous cross on which the Prince of Glory died,
My richest gain I count but lose and pour contempt on all my pride.

Forbid it Lord that I should boast, save in the death of Christ my God,
All the vain things that charm me most I sacrifice them to His blood.

Well, I suppose I should go eat supper...concert tonight!

Have a great weekend!

Proverbs 21:2 All a man's ways seem right to him, but the Lord weighs the heart.

Lots of things to blog about today.....

*Today winter is offically here! We've gotten a lot of winter weather this fall. I wonder what winter will bring? The other day it felt alomst like spring when it got over the freezing mark.

*I've memorized the first 42 verses of the first chapter of John. (I wish I would have done some serious memorizing before, the older you get the harder it is!)

*My fiddle has a loose sound post, due to a change in humidity (it's so DRY here) and it's making the A flat (on the D string) bubble and crack. It's so weird. No other note has been affected. Touché things these violins, very high strung...

*Check out Janlynn.com. This place has some nice free cross stitch downloads, lots of cross stitch links, a cool looking catalog, and more. They were very gracious and replaced the color chart of the project I'm currently working on which I accidentally left in a pocket and put through the wash and found in a bunch of small, unintelligible pieces.

*Bonnie got this interesting book about the the great Mt. Everest at a second hand store. The little pull outs were neat, although, I could have done without the Buddhist prayer flag. The view from the mountain looks spectacular! Wow. Did you know there is a 'yellow band' around Everest, made up of limestone and shale, and in that band there are billions of fossilized sea creatures? Good evidence of a worldwide flood, don't you think? The form you have to fill out so they know how to dispose of your body (!), and the stories of people who didn't make it back down, were all quite, eh, interesting. I don't think I want to try climbing Everest anytime soon! Particularly at $70,000 a whack.

*Our friends, the Dortignacs, made it back to CA. (Welcome home!)

Many are the plans in a man's heart but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails. Proverbs 19:21

Wow! What a weekend. Some of the concerts were so so (like the one that said at first they weren't expecting us and the one where someone chewed us out out for not smiling!?), but the last concert Sunday night made up for all that! A lovely weekend all and all. We got to sing at our old church for a big enthusiastic crowd. People who have seen us grow up were there to see us. Our very first concert was at this church 11-12 year ago. We did a 5 or 6 song scripture song set Sunday morning. Of course we didn't start singing every weekend but, something had happened. We were a singing family. The name "The MacDonald Family Singers' was copied from the Von Trapp Family. : P Some of the people in this group Sunday night have seen us grow from, just vocals, to vocals and instruments, to more instruments and more vocals, to vocals, instruments, a big ole' bus and a few tours under our belts. What's next? I don't know....maybe we should incorporate the unicycles? ; )

A friend of Bonnie's (check out his web site: www.slaveofchrist.com) has asked/told her to memorize the book of John. Three of us are going to do it. I've gotten through the first 18 verses. WOW. This is going to take some work, but it's going to be good!


Till next time....God bless y'all! (I'm feeling southern tonight.)

The wise in heart are called discerning and pleasant words promote instruction. Proverbs 16:21
I'm sitting here in my wet boots typing this. I walked home through a bunch of puddles and slushy wet snow, but it was dark so I couldn't really see them, except when the car lights shone on them. =)

Here's some 'poison' I made today.....

...if you have a craving for Walnut Ginger Snap cookies, try this recipe. Betty Crocker and I worked this out.

Walnut Ginger Snaps
3/4 c. shortening (butter for softer cookies)
1 c. brown sugar (packed)
1 egg
1/4 c. molasses

(grease your measuring cup and the stuff will slide out)
2 1/4 c. flour
2 t. soda
1 t. cinnamon
1 t. ginger
1/2 t. cloves
1/4 t. salt (very important!)
1 c. chopped walnuts
Mix your wet ingredients and brown sugar. Thoroughly mix in the remaining ingredients. You may cover the dough and chill for an hour or you can skip that and make your cookies ASAP.
Heat oven to 350, drop cookies from a teaspoon. Dip the tops in poison, er, white granulated sugar and place them on a lightly greased baking sheet. Bake 10-12 minutes or just until set. Immediately remove from baking sheet. Yields about 4 dozen cookies.

"Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing filled is a tree of life." Proverbs 13:12

This verse was illustrated so vividly to me when my dad was talking about selling the bus. Dad's dream, which he had given to us, of traveling on a bus and singing was fading as he talked about the pressure, the responsibility, his health issues, etc. But even so how could dad even talk about selling the bus? Wasn't this our dream, our vision, our lively hood? I remember quoting this verse to mom. Our hope was deferred and it was making us sick! After much prayer and fasting the Lord helped us get through all that and bus stayed and the music ministry is still intact. I was elated! Going though all that I don't take riding the bus for granted anymore. This bus is a precious gift the Lord has entrusted to us for the time being. As I look back I think of that time as the Lord testing us to prepare us for a more full time ministry. He was seeing if we would (I would!) lean on Him in all situations, even if it looked like everything was going to fall apart and our hearts were sick. Looking at all the churches, nursing homes we've been able to minister in, all the people we've been able to pray for, and the CD project which has gone places we've never been, it's all been worth it. It has been a tree of life. It's produced fruit and we're so thankful to the Lord for His leading and provision!

I also realized, with the help of a friend that selling the bus would by no means take away my ministry opportunities. There would just be different opportunities without a bus!

So, go out and do whatever God has called YOU to do, I know He will supply all your needs to do the job!

(That wasn't going to be so long, but it just turned out that way....)

I was going to blog last night, but I was SO tired. All this TV stuff can really wear you out. : P For those who don't keep up with Bonnie's blog we were the featured guests on a local tv show yesterday. (I missed you Bonnie, welcome back!!)

We had smooth sailing setting up even though the sound man showed up 20 minutes before we were scheduled to start. Our producer informed us when we got there we might have to tape this show and play it at a later date. Turns out dad had all the good ideas and equipment we needed and we were able to be aired LIVE! In the few minutes before we were set to start we'd get reminders from a loud speaker. 'Five minutes', 'two minutes', '30 seconds and you're on'! It was neat. Apparently this show is use to punk rock groups and jazz ensembles. I'm sure we were quite a shock! Though we were encouraged to hear that some people complain about the artists they have on the show. : P So, who knows. The boys smiled more than I have ever seen at a concert due to some dancing camera operators, it was so funny! Here's are some pre show pictures.

Another classic Nathan and pretty Bonnie!

HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY!

“He who heeds discipline shows the way to life, but whoever ignores instruction leads other astray.
Proverbs 10:17

Today is my blog’s birthday! One year ago today acted on my hunch that having an outlet to write would encourage me to write more and so improve my skill. It certainly has given me an outlet, if I’m any better at it I’m not sure! Thanks to Bonnie for blazing the path. = ) So in honor this one year anniversary (wait, I thought it was a birthday?) I’m going to start a new blogging feature or whatever you want to call it. At the beginning of each blog I’m going to put a verse from the book of Proverbs from the corresponding chapter for that day. (For those who don’t know Proverbs has 31 chapters and we read one everyday together as a family.) I don’t know that this will be a permanent feature since I don’t blog everyday; we’ll see.

I think winter decided to come early this year. Twelve inches of the fluffy white stuff is everywhere. I was reminded this morning there is nothing like snow shoveling to get warmed up! Here are some pics from yesterday.

The beginning of the storm….

My brother is rubbing snow into his head here.

I know, I don’t understand either.

He seems to like it.

Snow anyone?

On the way to a concert.

If anyone is wondering why we’re in the van read on. In the bus snow + hills = disaster! And we like to advert disaster (and tow trucks!).

I'm sitting here wondering what to blog. Why is it I think of good 'blogs' when I'm no where near a computer and when I'm near one my mind takes a vacation?

Well, so y'all don't wonder what happened to my prolific writer of a sister, she's on a hiatus until she can find her capo. Dad's orders. (For those who don't know a capo clamps on the guitar neck to enable a new key to be played with out changing finger of chords.)

Oh, yeah, I remember now what I wanted to blog about....

I am so extremely thankful for salvation I have through Jesus Christ and for the caring parents I have who introduced me to Him. My life would be so different without the Lord. This fact is so emphasized when I see the affect of sin in the people around me; the discord, unrest, fighting, the waiting for the next 'fix', the next high. It's so incredibly sad. Having no direction, no purpose they engaged in activities geared to satisfy their lustful desires. I can't even imagine myself in the place of the girl who had a son before she was 18 by her second cousin. It breaks my heart. That situation certainly makes me stop and think how blessed I have been. My parents have given me such a gift. To give me the greenhouse raising, the sheltered life and a spiritual foundation. The choice to follow the Lord was ultimately mine, but to have the gospel presented to me at an early age and in an conducive environment was so imperative. I'm so thankful that this is a thank you, mom and dad post instead of 'I'm going to kill you' and being forcefully removed from my home by the police. I'm getting a better picture of what I have missed the past few weeks, God has been so good to me. My heart goes out to these people who need someone to bring them the light. I know that darkness doesn't like the light because it exposed their wicked deeds but, it's still my job to be light and salt in this dying world, to take the message I've been entrusted with to them. I pray I will have the words to say to them, the words of life. Coming from a sheltered life I can't understand their problems in whole, but I do understand sin is sin and we're all guilty and deserve death. But, because of the shed blood of Jesus we can have eternal life through repentance. Hallelujah!

VERY LATE EDIT:
An acquaintance of mine was nice enough to point out I had a gross amount of typos and grammatical errors in the posting I linked to (the post you're looking at now). I apologize to everyone!! Please know, Dr. MacDonald can write and write well. His poor granddaughter did not inherit her paternal grandmother’s typing skills and it shows. : P That said, I believe these errors seriously detracted from his writing and for that I‘m sorry. I have corrected the problems that I found but, I will not boast they are all 'found and fixed' so, please alert me to any typographical errors at carolj@gmail.com. Thank you.

As I mentioned previously, here is the article written by Dr. William G. MacDonald dealing with the issues that surround Christmas. (Italics and bold original.)
_______________________________
Christmas Fallacies

Fallacy 1: That sacred duty demands an annual month-long anticipation of a week-long festival of Christmas, the driving mechanism of which is partying and exchanging presents.

Christmas as a season came in Christianity by the Constantinian accommodation of the Christian faith to pagan culture, some three and one-half centuries after Jesus was born. In the ancient Roman empire the most important, that is, most celebrated festival of the year was feast to the Roman god, Saturnus, god of seed-sowing, for whom a planet was named and also the seventh day of the week. This season of festivity for countering the onset of winter was accounted as an agricultural festival dedicated to Saturnus and called the Saternalia. It began on December 17 and lasted seven days through December 24. Presents were frequently exchanged. Business, school, and court were not conducted during the festival, and slaves were given increased freedom for the week. People reveled in feasting, drinking, dancing, gambling, and sensuality.

The day following the Saturnalia was December 25, still another feast day that had special appeal in the eastern part of the empire where the political power shifted in the fourth century. December 25 was the birthday of the Iranian savior-hero god of light, Mithras, the sun-god, celebrated as the greatest power affecting the earth and its inhabitants.

“The reason for the season,” as Christians of the early centuries knew so well was pagan; and it is pathetic for Christians today to think that because of the name change it later underwent in the fourth century, this season featuring high-spirited partying during the winter solstice, originally belonging to them. Christians of the first three centuries kept a low profile during the Saturnalia and on Mithras’ birthday. Since they did not even know, and therefore, did not celebrate the day of Jesus’ birth, they would be astounded to hear modern western Christians lament about the need to ‘put Christ back into Christmas,” as if pagan had taken over “Christmas,” instead of the other way around.

Fallacy 2: That the annual seasonal exchanging of presents among those who have the means to do so has anything to do with honoring Christ or implementing his teachings.

The most prominent, stressful, and costly feature of Christmas, exchanging gifts of equal value among social equals, while not giving the gifts to the living Jesus on his supposed birthday, demonstrates how far Jesus is out of the picture today in the holiday that bears his name --but little else of his. No one else is so treated at a birthday party when gifts are brought. Jesus therefore becomes the embarrassment of most Christmas parties.

Jesus discoursed on the broad aspects of giving-lending and the inadequacy of sinners’ motivation. The world gives only to those who benefit the giver or who can repay one’s gift or load in due course. His basic words from the sermon on the plain speak ever so perceptively to the subject of gift-giving motivated by selfish principles that do not meet the standard of his new kingdom:

And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ do that, And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ lend to ‘sinners’, expecting to be repaid in full.
Luke 6:33-34

When we apply this accounting of the Lord to Christmas day --as well we should--we get the following consistent query and comment:

If you give Christmas presents to those you anticipate will be giving Christmas presents to you, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ exchange presents among themselves.

Fallacy 3: That the coming of Santa Claus from the sky as a supernatural visitor to homes to provide gifts according to the wealth-level of that home, make him indispensable to Christmas, bringing abundance down from on high, the top of the world, alias North Pole, and making him the world’s celebrated and legendary giver, as weighed against a helpless holy baby, the gift of God, who has nothing to give-but himself in due course as the ransom for all.

The apostle John warned, “even now many antichrists have come” (1 John 2:18c). Santa Clause has all the following plusses to make him as anti-Christ in good standing (second in splendor only to the pope, who is more tangible):

1. He is believed to be omniscient, knowing all the good or bad children do at all times.
2. He has no great concern, however, for righteousness; so he gives presents even to bad people who have the money to play his game.
3. He is construed at be morally superior to Christmas-keepers in that they only exchange gifts Saturnalia-style, yet he gives Christmas presents to individuals as if it were their birthday and receives none in return (except from Ms. Claus).
4. He has no spiritual gifts to give, but provides the world’s more appreciated material presents, whose market value can be determined fairly easily.
5. He has a retinue of elves (like quasi-angels) and eight regular reindeer (as quasi-apostles whom he commands and who accompany him all over the world). He gets around faithfully, and there has never been a year in wealthy countries not in depression when his next coming did not materialize or the wait for him lasted more than twelve months.
6. He in recent years had acquired a surrogate for the Christ-child, Rudolph the red-nosed [ninth] reindeer, who though very young was chosen to guide Santa’s sleigh on the big night. In Santa’s version of the Christmas story, there is no baby as the center of attention, but there is his lovable little reindeer with whom, instead, all the children can identify, one chosen because of his red-glowing nose [substitute halo] to lead the team of reindeer.
7. He is virtually omnipresent, being simultaneously on the scene in his red suit in stores all over the city and throughout the nation, not to speak of there being millions of icons of him in all the print and television media and plastic or plaster statues of him that fill the land two months of the year, People regard the ubiquitous “graven images” of Santa with the same unguarded familiarity of acceptance that ancient Israel had for their statues of Baal that were everywhere during the many years of their unfaithfulness to their unseen God. Appearances that Santa Claus puts in from year to year even at church parties prove his wide ranging status as a substitute ‘instead of’ [Gk., anti] Christ.

Fallacies from Misunderstanding the Bible

Fallacy 4: That the two biblical accounts of the birth of Jesus authorize both the term, “Christmas,” and the day -December25- as his birthday.

Neither the date (day, month, year) nor the term (‘Christ[‘s] mass[s]’) occurs in the biblical texts that narrate the birth of Jesus. Both displacing Mithras’ birthday on 25 December and the supposed sacerdotal sacrificing of Jesus again in the Roman church’s high mass at midnight to begin the day December 25) are late developing traditions, of which the early Christians for centuries knew nothing. The first recorded festival of Christmas came in Rome in AD 336, and became finally fixed by the state-church in AD 354 to overlap the sun god’s birthday.

Constantine the Great was, by virtue of his office as Roman emperor, the pontifex maximus. He moved the government from Rome to Byzantium, which he called Constantinople, his capital. As the highest priest in paganism (pontifix maximus), he did not submit to Christian baptism until shortly before he died in AD 337, but he did not let this postponement of the rite initiation keep him from exercising great power over the church, which he legalized, led (calling the first general council to meet at Nicea in AD 325), and influenced greatly toward syncretism with the world. Prior to his “conversion” in AD 313, he had been a worshiper of Mithras, and therefore of the sun. Coins were struck and monuments were erected by Constantine that combined Christian doctrines with sun-worship. He bean the trend that ultimately would replace Mithras with Jesus as the symbol for the holiday, keeping the form, but changing the name and adding a continual sacrifice, the mass.

“Christmas,” as the term indicates, requires the mass. But the holy Scripture declares that Jesus was sacrificed once for all time (Heb 7:27; 9:12,26,28; 10:10,14; 1 Pet 3:18), making the sacrifice of the mass biblical impossibility, a heresy that cuts across apostolic teaching, and a contradiction of the Lord’s finished work at the cross (John 19:30), reducing it to the level of the OT animal sacrifices that had to be made continually. Rome’s treachery in this matter of shifting salvation from the finished work of Christ to the unfinished work of the Roman church, needed to keep the OT-type priesthood busy, is explained concisely in:

Dave Hunt, “’Sacrifice’ of the Mass,” A Woman Rides the Beast. Eugene, OR: Harvest House Publishers, 1994, 369-387. [This book of biblical exposition, replete with history and prophetic critique, is definitive -- a classic of the twentieth century.]

Luke can be specific in recording placement in history, e.g., Luke 3:1-2. Because he did not record the date of Jesus’ birth, while giving other details about his birth (Luke 1:26-56; 2:1-39), we must conclude that the date of his birth in about 4B.C. (after adjustments are made from the old to the modern calendar) had no importance for doctrine, any more than do the unrecorded facts about his physical appearance, or the name of his sisters. For those who would speculate anyway, a date in late December is much too far into the cold season for the shepherds to have been out in the open all night (Luke 2:8). The day and month of Jesus’ birthday were not a matter of revelation, and therefore the exact date has no relevance for our understanding of the gospel.

Fallacy 5: That God incarnated himself by degrees (as a pair of gnostic aeons), by first becoming an angel (in the OT), and then that superangel’s becoming a man (in the NT).

Hebrews, chapter one, completely disallows any mixing of angelology into Christology. Popular support for the incarnation as occurring first in “the angel of the Lord” is bolstered by a coordinate misunderstanding of a phrase from the famous Christmas carol, O Come All Ye Faithful, with the line, “born the king of angels.” For a full examination of the mirage of Christoangelomorphology in all the supposed biblical texts and in the history of their interpretation, see:

William G. MacDonald, “Christology and the Angel of the Lord,” Current Issues in Biblical and Patristic Interpretation, ed. By Gerald F. Hawthorne. Eerdmans, 1975, pp 324-335.

Fallacy 6: That the shepherds and wise men arrived in Bethlehem at the manger on the same night, meeting and greeting each other, as well as the infant Jesus.

Matthew 2:10 indicates “house” as the place Jesus was when the wise men arrived. Contrast Luke’s saying “there was no room for them in the inn” (Luke 2:7) on the night of Jesus’ birth. Rooms of an inn were built on the second story around a patio. Underneath each room there would be the stable to tie, feed [hence the manger], and protect the travelers’ animals of transit.

Since Bethlehem was only five miles from Jerusalem, and a three days’ trip back to Nazareth, Joseph and Mary would have had an incentive to remain at Bethlehem until Mary could be purified [40 days] and Jesus, her firstborn, could be presented in Jerusalem in the temple (Luke 2:22-24).

Fallacy 7: That the evergreen Christmas tree, brought into English-speaking homes for just 200 of the past 2000 years, has validity because the cross was a “tree.”

“Tree” as a euphemism for a hewed upright with a crossbar for executing Roman criminals refers to Jesus’ cross in the NT (Acts 5:30, 10:39, 13:29, 1 Pet. 2:24). On his way to imminent crucifixion, Jesus spoke a riddle to the women who wailed for him along the road: “For if men do these things when the tree is green [the speedy miscarriage of justice that ordered the crucifixion of an innocent man], what will happen with it is dry?” [the destruction of Jerusalem in rebellion against Rome, to occur within the generation]. The Bible says nothing to justify a Christmas tree or its veneration. The OT more than 36 times mentions groves of idols where trees were venerated. Any connection of Jesus’ birth [or death] with a decorated balsam, douglas fir, or spruce tree is arbitrary, unwarranted, and derived from non-Christian historical roots.

Tree worship by ancient Semitic people also was practiced by medieval pagan Europeans, and in modern times the Teutonic/Germanic tree had migrated from Europe into the Christmas festival as its primary symbol. When compared with an animal’s feeding trough, the symbol of poverty making the birth of Jesus , a now artificial lighted “Christmas tree,” almost universally wins the competition to portray the focal center of the season in homes and churches. However ironic, it is not unusual for a fully trimmed 15’ tree to be gleaming near the pastor as he repeats his annual sermon on putting Christ back into Christmas. There is even a hymn to the Christmas tree sung in German [O Tannenbaum] and in English translation, but not sung in most churches--yet.

William G. MacDonald

Ahhhh!!! My computer ATE my blog. So, you will only get the pics from last night's concert with the band. For those who don't know, along with playing in the band we have done the intermission for Montague Community Band for 3 years now. I have more to say about this concert, but time is just too short. I'll have to fill you in someother time! In the meantime, sorry to everyone with a slower connection, I hope these pics don't take an age or two to load!

This is a cross stitch piece I did this past summer/fall. I can't believe it's done!

My grandmother is a bird watcher so I did this with her in mind. I sent it off through the [annoying] post office and she got it a few days after her birthday. So, my suggestion to anyone who needs to finish their cross stitch project is get adopted by a big family who travels in a bus and work on it when you have long stretches of highway that needs to be filled with a constructive activity.

NOTE: The Christmas Fallacies paper (which I mention is this post) can be found here
http://caroljoy.blogspot.com/2005/12/as-i-mentioned-previously-here-is.html
It seems it’s almost harder to get near computer now that we have DSL. The main computer, plus 3 laptops, a palm pilot type thingy and we still we still have to take turns!! Bonnie just looked at this and laughed. HA! Easy for her to say with a laptop staring her in the face. I’m considering getting a laptop, that way I can use the computer whenever I want. Although, that might be a bad thing. : P The four kids under me all have them and they do share them with me. I’m just an old lady without a laptop. *sigh*

Ok, on to different things…. two blogs I've read in the past few days were talking about Christmas roots (Lindsay) and Christmas trees (Justin).

When I was younger I didn’t see anything wrong with Christmas. My parents never ever lied to me about Santa and we never had a tree that I can remember, it was not materialistic really at all. (Although, was very very young because there is a picture of Bonnie under one when she was a baby, so we did do something, to what extend I don't know.) Christmas was just the time you got a warm fuzzy feeling, people were generous, good tidings, great food, Christmas Carols (with a name like that ya gotta love em') and a musical play at church (which I was in, I was a lip-syncing lamb, really fits me, eh?), and of course Jesus was the reason for the season and all that bit. My parents at some time decided we would not celebrate Christmas in the tradition Christian sense of the word. I didn't quite understand why my parents thought it wasn't the greatest. So, down went the tree, the gift exchange etc. Although, my grandmother while she was alive continued to give us gifts and make a big deal over the day by inviting us over for Christmas dinner. Apparently, the decision to not make a big deal out of Christmas did not come from reading a certain passage of scripture. My understanding of this subject is that scripture commands us to remember His death until he comes, not His birth. That combined with pagan roots doesn’t make it a very appealing. It would seem that the Bible is silent on the tree issue, except it does say not to have a graven image before you. Personal conviction has to come into play here. I view the tree as an unnecessary piece of junk to clutter up your living room and dump pine needles everywhere, which someone (guess who) will inevitably have to clean up! So in essence, it’s a waste of time. It's not forbidden, but why bother? The tree seems to be worldly phenomena, not based in scripture. The verse “Do not conform any longer to the patter of this world but be transformed by the renewing of you mind.” Romans 12:2 comes to my thinker right about now. So, my advice? Search it out, let the Holy Spirit be your guide.

My Grandfather wrote a 4 page paper titled ‘Christmas Fallacies’. I might be inclined to post it here, if I ever get it typed up. : p It touches on 7 different fallacies of Christmas. Including present exchange, date of Christ's birth, Santa, trees, etc. Biblically based and well written.

On a lighter note, we made CDs of our trip pics, 4 of them to be exact, filled with memories, places, and people we met. Here is Nathan on the way to the Dortignac’s house in Oklahoma…..simply shocking!



He had *just* washed his hair and it had not been combed yet. Thanks for letting me post this Nathan!

Howdy all you good folks out there!

This is my very first post using DSL, we’re all really excited! Not that I’m blogging, but because of the DSL. ; ) Now we can get all the calls we’ve missed in the past five years!
Let the phone ring....

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!

46 years together!

Collectively, of course. ; )

I feel like I should give an update on my closet cleaning today. I'm 225 articles of clothing and 14 pairs of shoes [eight black bags] lighter tonight - I'm making progress! Yay! While I was sorting my fingers kept getting cold and I'd have to run down stairs after they went numb to warm them up. I finally got smart and found some fingerless gloves and I did much better after that. I know this is going to be good for me to pair down, I just hope I can follow through with this whole thing. I like traveling on the bus because I only have a limited amount of outfits (about 5) and I don't spend half and hour decided what to wear. So, Mrs. W. , the organizing queen, has inspired me to new heights of decluttering, all I have to do is have the guts to follow through! I think getting rid of 61 skirts is a good start.

Here is a picture of a house on our street in the beautiful, but cold snow that fell Thanksgiving day. I can't believe we got more today. It's been really chilly here so it's not melting! It's been in the teens at night. *checks thermometer on computer* Wow! Heat wave for tonight, it's all of 23 degrees now.

I can't believe I was one of those 5:00 am shoppers yesterday. I've never done that before but Wal-Mart had this great deal on SD cards which will store twice the amount we can store on our present card. I'm not sure why I wanted to go since Bonnie and Dad were already going. I guess it started out mom was going to take us to buy paint for the bathroom before the store got mobbed and our company came, but we decided not to paint. (We ended up just got some paint chips for her to look at.) Then we started to look at the sale flyer and saw the SD and Flash drives for $13.88, but the sale was only 5-11 am. I'm not good at getting up early if I got to bed late. I was awakened by Peter at 4:36 and he wanted to know if I was going. Groan.... I stumble out of bed and grab my glasses. Darkness. Oh, yeah, the light. I need to get to the light. Jump over the pile of clothing on the floor, yawn, stand there getting bearings and letting my eyes get accustom to the blinding light. Finding some warm clothes and get down stairs in one piece is an important next step. We're out the door. It must be 18 degrees outside. BRRRR! At this point I'm still not fully awake, everything looks strange. Another *yawn* (I hope I'm not boring everyone...) We pull up to Wal-Mart and the place is FULL of people. Peter and Nathan ran in and Bonnie and I follow at a slower pace and dad parks the car. I'm telling Bonnie, "this is crazy". I'm closing my eyes and letting her guide me, wake me up when we get somewhere important. We get to electronics and the aisle is packed! We find the SD cards no problem and they brought out the Flash drives after we asked about them, apparently they didn't know what they were, they kept pointing to the SD cards saying "Aren't they over there?". Get with the program people! So we get our stuff pay for it. We're home by 5:30 am and we crash back into bed and sleep until 8:00 am.

We had this family (http://www.wiebefamily.org/) over for dinner tonight! For all the people who have our CD, look in the insert to read our thank you to this dedicated family. They are awesome people who love the Lord. Praise God for people like them!

Mrs. W., the lady who has read every single book about organizing that there is, got the grand tour of our house and among other things she decided mom has too many pots and pans and I need to get rid of half my clothes (literally). Ouch. I know, I seriously need to pair down. It takes up WAY too much of my life to organize all of it! (If anyone wants to see Bonnie body diving into a closet full of my clothes to get her three bags, let me know. It‘s awful. Bonnie challenged me to count all the clothes I have, I don't know if it would be worth the time, we'll see.) My list of goals for November is clean out my closets and reorganize. There are only a few days left in November so I better get working on that tomorrow..... : P

Our attorney general, Tom Reilly, decided to enforce the Blue Law in our fair state of Massachusetts this Thanksgiving Day so Wal-Mart couldn’t open. What does everyone think of the Blue Laws? Why should store hours be controled by the government?

(I hope this whole thing isn’t full of typos, I was distracted and didn’t have time to proof read a lot, please let me know of any gross errors!)

Today it was difficult to get near the computer with all the instrument shoppers shopping. But, now everyone's gone (almost) and it's my turn!

Twas’ the night before Thanksgiving and all through the house all the people were happy, even the mouse (because he didn’t get caught, we caught a mole instead)

anyway.....

Even though colds we do have
Soon they’ll be gone and we’ll be so glad!

We cooked and we cooked till we could stand it no more
We even made a trip out to the store

The cookies and pies are all baked and ready
Cream cheese with yams are really quite yummy

When snow flies tomorrow, next door we will be
For turkey and trimmings made so carefully

I’m really no poet but sometimes I try
So whatever you do please, don’t cry

Happy Thanksgiving!

COLORS

Want to cover your unattractive plastic bins you bought at Wal-Mart? Try this colorful idea from bin cover designer Beverly! Just collect flower pictures which you printed off the internet and color coordinate them on to black stock paper and glue away. Beverly isn't a bin cover designer by trade, she is my crafty employer! While I was gone she made about 30+ wall hangings for Christmas presents and a bunch of other cool stuff. If you look on the left of the picture you'll see a sliver of Pharaoh, the cat, who was sitting on the chair watching me take the picture.

The cleaning bug bit us today! There is nothing like the prospect of company to get the house together in a hurry. I worked on the 'pile' near the computer. I just don't understand how we fit so much in a small space! It would be nice if we could get a work bench for dad so he could keep all the sound system parts etc., in a confined warm area with a bright light. He'd love that. Maybe when we remodel the office......

Speaking of remodeling, the bahthroom (Boston talk) is coming along nicely! Dad and Vincent worked on it all day and poor dad's exhausted! I'm glad tomorrow is Sunday so he can rest up. His blood pressure is up (again!) and we're trying to keep things as low key has possible. No hypertension allow at our house! Right!?! Right.

P.S. If you can't get the link above to work use this url: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d166/beverly12/2168750e.jpg

I was interesting in hearing Barbara Streisand’s voice this summer. Now, mind you, I know she’s a flaming liberal and on the extreme left, but I’d heard so many things about her voice I was curious as to her vocal capabilities. So, I went to the library and found a CD of hers that looked tame, ‘Higher Ground‘. After playing it I decided her voice wasn’t my cup of tea. Certainly not classical. : p But, I wasn’t really expecting that, I was just curious if she was the wonder I heard she was. On the insert she has the list of songs and a little comments about each one. Many of the songs were clearly humanistic and most told everyone to ‘look within‘, a bunch of garbage. At the very end she sang ‘On Holy Ground‘. You can imagine my shock when I hear the familiar strains of the Christian song ‘On Holy Ground’. Something has to be wrong when the left and the general public are playing/singing Christian songs! She said it sounded like a love song to her and something like it surprised her when she found out it was Christian, and then added ’isn’t all religion a love song?” Apparently songs written that were suppose to be “Christian’ can be twisted. But is it really the world’s fault? If “Christian” songs had a unapologetic gospel message that (actually mentioned the name of Jesus and not Him and He etc) the world won’t touch them with a ten foot pole! It always amazes me that many stores play ’Christian’ music. The Christian teen magazine I picked up at a church on our trip had a blurb about a group who claimed to be Christian doing non-Christian rock. It was almost like they were saying this was a good thing and they were proud to be getting into this sort of crossover and attention. I thought Christian rock music was imitating the world, but now they aren’t even pretending to do ‘Christian’ music.

Are the lines between the church and the world being blurred or is that my imagination working overtime?

Sunrise, Sunset.....
Well, it’s been a looong day, but it’s finally coming to a close. Being out from 10:00 am to 9:30 pm and only coming home for lunch isn’t always fun. Here was the glorious sunrise I woke up to this morning…


Isn’t God‘s creation wonderful?

Onions

Last night I was totally amazed, actually floored. Vincent, the death-to-all-onions-can’t-stand-‘em-if-my-life-depended-on-it-I’ll-never-never-ever-like-’em boy, told me over dinner at a friend’s house he liked onions now and it was OK to cook with them. I nearly fainted. I always told him one day he would grow up and he DID! Wonders never cease. What type of foods did you hate as a kid but love when 'grown up'? I think onions, squash, and garlic were on my top 3 list. I now like all of the above (except for certain tyes of squash, but I eat them anyway).

I went out to the bus tonight and brought up some sound system stuff and I was totally amazed at how bright the moon was. God’s creation is so awesome. (And it was great since I didn’t bring a flashlight!)

Here are some fall colors from New Jersey.....

I don’t have time for a long blog so check this link out to Voice of the Martyrs .

Sunday is the IDOP (International Day of Prayer) for the persecuted church. Please remember our persecuted brothers and sisters and pray for them, not just this Sunday but year round.

Home

Our sweet neighbor, Mrs. T (or Miss Colleen, depending on if you’re from the south) brought over a meal for us last night for today's lunch. She stayed and chatted for a while. It’s so nice to be back! Time to recharged, regroup and reorganize. It was a grey rainy day yesterday in the 40’s. Today the sun is trying to peek out of the and it’s up to 48 degrees Fahrenheit! Cool! (Literally.) The wood stove is cheerily running and we’re enjoying it greatly. : )

As I’m enjoying the luxury of being home, I’m reminded that we’re still traveling. Traveling through this world, strangers in a strange land, longing for a heavenly home. How wonderful that will be to see Jesus face to face and live with him forever! How often we let the everyday grind and ’stuff’ distract us from our mission on this earth. II Corinthians 5:20-9 “Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. Now it is God who had made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit guaranteeing what is to come. Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. We live by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So we make it our goal to please Him.” [Bold added]

This world and it’s desires are so temporary. Even our very life is described as a ’vapor’. Our very lives are nothing, just a mist that is here for a moment and gone the next. Our goal should be only to please the Lord. Nothing else matters! My granddad, a Greek and Hebrew scholar with a doctorate, always holds an excellent Bible study at our devotion time in the morning. The last morning we were there he brought up an interesting point. In our ministry he said we should be seeking the approval of the Lord and not ‘draw’ on the ‘energy’ of the audience as the non-Christian performer does. An excellent thing to keep in mind. Especially when you find an audience who looks like they’ve been sucking lemons and not enjoying themselves or the message we are bringing at all. Praise the Lord we don’t have to worry about the approval of men. For we sing not for men but for God.

Well, we made it to Virginia!

We may have to head home tomorrow afternoon depending if Dad and I have to be at the court house. (No, we're not in trouble, our civic duty calls every once in a while.)

I really don't feel like writing but since I'm at a computer with a decent connection I really feel obligated to check in. Pray for us as we're really tired. The nursing home concert the afternoon went pretty bad. I think we're all worn out! We need to get home and regroup. It also didn't help that the audience gave us little response. We had a excellent concert Sunday night. It's so nice to do a concert with familiar faces in the crowd!

We'll see y'all next year Lord willing!

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood....

What a gorgeous day it was today! I can't believe we're getting above 70 degrees. It's November for crying out loud! It was a perfect time to clean out my closet, which took me most of the afternoon. The guys (and mom) raked all the leaves and Peter ran the leaf grinder. We took the air conditioners out yesterday. We won't be needing those for a while. : p

Dad took the generator in and they fixed it. PTL! We're planning to leave Thursday, bright and early. We would appreciate your continued prayers for a safe trip.

A view from the road

(I think this is PA, route 81.)

Home Sweet Home (Already?)

Well, I expected to blog tonight from VA but the Lord had other plans!

The Lord has been working on me about trusting that His has everything under control and when trials come to talk to Him about it. When we were going through a rough spot on our trip the Lord called my attention to I Thessalonians 5:16-18 which says “Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus”. Being able to pray through your problem is such a comfort. That little song “Just a little talk with Jesus makes it right” would be appropriate just now. Through thick and thin the Lord is there to talk to. It’s just so awesome. The Lord will give you peace which surpasses all understanding. Praise God!

Let me start the story from where I left off last time. The generator broke at the Godin’s house for the sixth time! Not good. We spent Friday afternoon playing kickball with the Godins. Lots o‘ fun! I think I did too much yelling and laughing while we were with them because my throat was bothering me. : P We left their house headed for the Peach State and our next concert for a combined church banquet. They fed us a huge meal before we sang. Praise the Lord my neck started feeling better as we started singing! The concert went well until the very end when I announced the last song, thanked them for having us told them we ‘always have a good time in Alabama‘. Some old lady in the front yelled "Georgia". I forgot we crossed the state line into Georgia 2 hours previously. Woops. Can you tell I've been traveling?! Everyone had a good laugh on me. ; ) The Godins came up and played with us for the last few songs. We said our goodbyes in the parking lot and waved until they were out of sight. Lord willing we’ll see you guys next year! (Btw Kim, Vincent and I both came down with poison ivy! )

We did a string of churches Saturday, Sunday morning, and night. Saturday’s church was so sweet! They gave us a food ‘pounding’ (which we had never heard of before), hook ups, a full church to sing to, a scrumptious meal and fellowship. It was so fun and a great time of ministry. Bonnie and I sat across from a mom and daughter from New Bedford, MA transplanted to North Carolina. We had a nice time talking to them. (Hello Judy and Samantha!)

Sunday night we started out of the parking lot after the concert and dad said, ‘we’re going home’. Huh? We still have five concerts left and we wanted to stop to visit our grandparents in VA. So, dad drives almost all through the night and we wake up in Pennsylvania, not Virginia. (The fall colors were gorgeous by the way! Better than Massachusetts.) Because the generator isn’t working we won’t be able to keep the heat working which is kinda important in the great white north. So, we arrived back HOME (!) at about noon today a week before schedule. Dad called the generator place and they said they had the part in stock and they might be able to get it fixed so we could still make it to our concert on Thursday in Delaware. Please pray they are able to fix it and we’ll make it to all our DE/NJ concerts!

In the meantime we're enjoying being home. It's going to be so cool to sleep in a bed that does move. In our quiet little town the leaves have fallen and are falling. We had a big pile out in front of the house! The color on the trees is just about blah as far as New England colors go. We missed last year’s foliage so it looks great to us! Quite a bit of yellow this year. It was in the 60’s and we had all the windows and doors open! We couldn’t have asked for a nicer day to arrive home. There is a cheery fire in the wood stove and mom and dad are chatting with the neighbor. Garlic Girl (Bonnie) made oatmeal cookies even though she’s sick. Poor thing, she still can’t hear and the cold is moving into her throat. Sunday night she just about lost her voice! She’s doing better but still has a ways to go. Here she is on the guitar in Georgia a few nights ago. (Thanks to Kim for the picture!)



Till next time…

Whoa... a barber shop quartet just came on the on radio…..reminds me of the Dortignacs.
(I wish you guys had a CD.)

Yikies, I'm long winded tonight.

What a week!

Time is going so quickly. Soon we will be back home and working on the house and hopefully planning another trip. : ) I think we're getting ready to go back home. Some of us were ready about a week ago! Bus fever is setting in. Not that we haven't enjoyed being on the road. I may have said this is a previous post but this has been the best trip yet. We just grow weary working and living in a house that rocks, sways, and shifts with every turn and corner.

Yesterday and today we have been staying with our friends the Godins. (Eleven kids and counting.) We played a type of hide and seek on the woods yesterday in camo. What a blast! Very fun. Poor Bonnie had to stay home because of her ear! Kim, Kristian and I hid in this cool little cave until Vincent scared us out. We crossed a log bridge very quickly and I lost my balance and fell into the stream! It wasn't very deep but I screamed anyway. : p My throat hurt last night. (Bad!) So we're out in the woods with wet shoes and several people hunting us down. Lots of thorns and briers out there. I think I should have worn a hat! We came in for lunch and had a practice session together. It so fun to play with other people! We worked up a few songs to do together at the concert last night. The concert went well and the food was delicious!

This morning I woke up and bent my head to look at the clock. Ping. Ouch. It's now not a good idea to turn my head to the right, up or down.

Bonnie's ear is doing about the same. It started to drain this morning and she had a garlic and peanut butter ball this morning. (Yuck.) We still love her ever though she has a slight garlic odor.

11 days until we get home!

We left Jan-Kay Ranch Friday...Bonnie has a good story which I hope she blogs soon. The morning we left....well, I won't tell the story. It's Bonnie's to tell!

Jan-Kay Ranch has a web site which you can check out here. Jason of 'Jason and Julie' who we invited for supper wasn't feeling too well so we just had Julie over. We had a great time visiting with her! It's just amazing all the people we've been able meet on this trip. PTL!

This morning we drove through Memphis, TN area and saw where dad lived when he was 12. I'm surprised how much he remembers considering he was only there for a year. We're in Alabama tonight and for the rest of the week. Looking forward to seeing all our friends in 'Bama!

I've added two people to my links bar. Welcome to Krista and Mandy! I'm not sure how many hits I'm going to get you two but at least I won't have to hunt through the history to find your sites. : )

We've slept next door to the 'Ripper' the rhinoceros for 4 nights now. We saw the cougars being fed today. They started hissing at us as soon as we got close to them. They just crunched those chicken thighs down no problemo. Gulp. Wow. The female got really close to the cage and Bonnie touched her whiskers. Here are a few pictures I took today. It's really hard to photograph animals in cages!

Today was more relaxing than yesterday! Bonnie and I helped dad work on the trailer that needed to be fixed. After all out work was done we went around and took pictures of the animals. Bonnie and I played 18 holes of miniature golf. I'm not sure who won. We has a good time laughing over how long it took us to get some of those balls in.

At the dock they have lots of paddle boats and canoes. The sign on the boat house reads 'no swimming'. Matthew said ' Well, if I fall out of the boat I guess I'll have to drown." : )

We spent the better part of yesterday and the day before power washing four buildings and painting two little 'houses' inside the Horse Palace here at Jan-Kay Ranch. A lot of on your feet work. My left wrist started clicking last night, don't know if that has to do with the painting. A hot shower felt really good!

The boys went down to make faces at the monkeys. I'm not sure the monkeys enjoyed it but the boys had a fun time. The barn cats are so adorable! That's one animal I wouldn't mind having at home. A little kitty to snuggle up to. I don't like independent cats that just give you a cool look and slink off. The only cat a see on a regular basis is Pharaoh, the spoiled brat. : ) But I think he's cute. The bengal tiger looks very regal and jaguar very sleek. Don't think I'd like to take those cats home. : P I heard it 'meowing' all the way from the horse barn. Mr. Coates said you can hear them roar from 3-5 miles away. Bonnie and I explored out behind the imitation kangaroo's cage in search of the little piglets we knew were back there. Bonnie turned up a whole bunch of them while I was photographing a bashful peacock. I tried to get a shot of the lamb but as soon as he saw the camera he turned around, as if to say 'I do NOT want my picture taken!'. I caught up with Bonnie in time to see a whole lot of squealing hogs and little piglets stampede across the road. It was a riot! The piglets looked really huggable with their little tails waging and legs flying but the adults looked plain mean. Particularly the black ones. Bonnie found one sleeping pig in among the hay rolls and she startled it. Since he was a very large hog it took him several tries before he got up. LOL The prairie dogs who kept poking their heads out of their holes looked very comical. Vincent got really close to one by waiting out near one of the holes. When he appeared Vincent promptly tried to knock it out with a hedge apple. Missed!

We met Jason and Julie and newly married couple who work here at the farm. We're suppose to have them over to supper Thursday, our last day here.

Today Bonnie and I cleaned 14 toilets, 14 sinks, 12 showers and mopped all the floors in the cabins. The pool felt so good this afternoon! Vincent and the boys moved firewood and hay. Dad, Bonnie and I ran into town (not literally, we were in a car) to go shopping. We stopped at a quaint looking music store but the door was locked and the open sign up and a was dog barking inside. Strange.

While I'm uploading a picture of our safari I'll fill y'all in on the past two days.

Sunday was great! We had big crowds morning and night. I don't really measure concerts by how many people showed, it's much better to connect to the audience then to be packed out, but it's nice to sing to a full church. The carpet at night was a cool red color. (I mention this because red is one of my very favorite colors.) We did a lot more talking at the night service I think then we have ever done before. The people were awesome. They said if we ever got tired of living in Massachusetts we should move to Paris. (Texas, not France.) That's what the church in Glen Rose said too. : ) Texans are so nice.

We're here today at an exotic animal campground. It is unbelievable!!!!!!!! The Lord has been doing so many cool things on this trip why should I be so surprised. We weren't expecting lions and tigers and bears! (Oh MY!) The camels where my favorite...they were very, very friendly and wanted us to pet them. Bonnie said they had a very smug look on their faces. LOL. They were very cute.

We might be staying this whole week helping these people out. I can not believe all the work that goes into this place. Anyway, if we stay that means I could possibly blog all week! That would be interesting for a change.

I really would like to tell y'all about the OK part of the trip. I should mention, since I've already mentioned the D's and N's (though not in depth), we got to dine with the talented Mrs. Lyman and family (Mr. Wid) Monday night! We went to Ceci's, a first for all of us except for them. Those cinnamon rolls hit the spot and the pizza was great. Thanks again Izzy and Ironman!

Alright here's our Texas safari pic # 1

Whooops. That pic is a little small. Sorry!

The guys just came in from the pool sing "Church Policy" LOL I'm in the hallway and they had to walk over me.

Till tomorrow ....
(or whenever I get around to blogging again.)

Ok, this is going to be really quick.

The Lord had been so good! This past week was so cool. We met two LARGE families this past week. Go here and here. We played v-ball and stayed up late. So much fun. I found out I'm not good at volleyball, but it was fun anyway. I've also decided I can't play or sing anything. ; ) Not really, but both these groups were so good! And they give all the glory to God. It's really nice to hang out with people who love the Lord. (God bless you all!)

I've got to go watch the video we made of the Dortignac pizza night. What fun!

I'd really like to get some pictures up but I'm using a friend's computer and the laptop is not handy.

So if you've gottn this far in my post and haven't clicked on the two links I provided go do it now. =-)

Till next time....

Praise the Lord of all His mercies! We've been in and out of Iowa since Wednesday. The transmission drop off went well and we got to spend some time with the Miller's. Mr. Miller was so funny and hit it off well with Nathan our coin collector. Mr. Miller's collection is quite impressive. : )

The bus camp went well. Surprisingly well. We all got our allotment of grease under our finger nails and it looks like we'll have more busses to strip next year.

I really enjoy weekends on our trips. Meeting new people and doing concerts. It's a great time. This weekend was no exception. We met the Froiland Family and they gave us a mini concert after the 'walking tacos' experience. They played some really cool cowbells. We have to get some of those! I want to post a picture but mom needs the phone, so I don't have time to upload it.

Thanks to Izzy for blogging our shedule! Looking forward to see you.

I'm alive! Today we're in Mason City, IA. It's a little rainy and cold but we're doing alright. Sorry this is so short. Going to be in MN this weekend, pray for us when you think of us. It's been a great week and a half on the road! The bus wouldn't start for us twice now but they got it working again. The generator is still working but we're trying not to use it.

Till next time....

We're off!!! Leaving in a few minutes for 7 weeks. We're way to relaxed. I'll check in as often as I can.

Laters!

The Bible is proven true again. Does that surprise us?

Check this young man's xanga out, he has some special news he wants to share with everyone!

I don't feel like writing today sooooo....

Before:

After:

First of all, Happy Birthday to Izzy! Hope you have an awesome day and hope you're having good weather like we're having here in MA.

Second, it's the 4th anniversary of 9/11. It's hard to believe it happened 4 years ago. I remember where I was when I heard the news. I was up in my room working on remodeling. (For my 17th birthday they gave me a room makeover, they helped the first month, I had to finish. : ) So I came down stairs for something and mom told me what happened and told me to turn on the radio. One week later my grandmother died. Kinda of a sad time all around. Still, God is good and on the throne no matter what we go through. Through her funeral we were given a banjo and that started the bluegrass division of the MacDonald Family Singers. God works in mysterious ways.

I spent a better part this warm day cleaning the driveway, working on the bus and shoveling dirt. We got a bunch of work done. I think we’re all ready for Sunday, the day of rest. : )

After a yummy Italian supper of spaghetti and meatballs I sat down to work on my baby which has been out of commission for weeks now. The new strings (Red Label and Prim) came last week and I was excited about trying them. Dad put the gut back on which I was afraid to do alone and after I put on the fine tuners and glued the nut back on I started to tune it up. It would NOT tune up. The bridge keeps popping out and the whole assembly seems to be crooked. WAAAAAA! Alrighty, enough griping about my petty fiddle troubles. Someday we’ll make sweet music together again…. Someday.

This is the promised pic of the little sweetie mouse that the kids treed.

: P

Have a great weekend!

The count down is on! By the end of next week we should be on the road again. I don't know how often I'm going to be near a computer to blog... you'll just have to check back once in a while to see.

On the way to work I nearly bumped into this guy coming out of a bar. So, I handed him an IQ test and walked off. I'm having second thoughts about giving tracts out men if I'm alone after he yelled after me 'hey, do you want to go out sometime?" SCARY! Not on my life mister. I gave another one away to a lady not far from that same spot and she thanked me for it. I was so surprised. Hardly anyone thanks me for one. The million dolar bills are popular. Although I did have a little gal, probably 6 years old turn me down. :p

Check out Lora's and Lindsay's Blogs for first hand information from a shelter in Texas and at the Astrodome in Huston.

Till next time...

Please remember to pray for our persecuted brothers and sisters in Christ. Here is some news from Indonesia through Christian Aid.

Call to Prayer amid Escalating Persecution in Indonesia

Three women sentenced to prison after leading Sunday school

In light of shocking news from Indonesia, Christian Aid’s contacts there have called for 21 days of fasting and prayer September 7 – 21.

On Thursday, the international Christian community was stunned when three Christian women were found guilty by a court on West Java of “deceitful conduct, a series of lies and enticements to seduce children to change their religion against their wills.” Dr. Rebecca Laonita, Mrs. Ratna Mala Bangun and Mrs. Ely Pangesti were duly convicted and have begun a three-year term of imprisonment.

They had been targeted by Indonesia’s Islamic Council for holding a Sunday school program attended by Christian and Muslim children, all of whom had their parents’ permission to participate. Parents even attended some activities, which included games and visits to the zoo, with their children.

The women were accused of wrongdoing using the following excerpt from the hadith, Mohammed’s recorded sayings: “Every child is born in the state of purity [Islamic religion].” To cause a child to stray from the way of “purity” (Islam) is therefore considered a grave offense. Accusers alleged that, because the Sunday school program was an enjoyable time for children, the women were enticing them away from Islam.

According to Christian Aid’s contact, the first Muslim child to attend was the daughter and granddaughter of prostitutes who “did not want the child to go down the same path” and specifically requested the women accept her to the program. This girl apparently enjoyed Sunday school and recruited several of her Muslim friends to attend.

Despite such evidence that children were not enticed or deceived to attend, the Christian women were accused and put on trial for several weeks in a courtroom continuously dogged by Muslim radicals. Muslims, many carrying weapons, swarmed the court, yelled Islamic slogans and threatened witnesses, lawyers and even judges. On the day the verdict was read, extremists apparently arrived at court with a coffin in which they claimed they would bury the accused if they were not found guilty.

According to Christian Aid’s contact in Indonesia, this kind of intimidation is only one example of widespread persecution increasing across the country. He says, “Over 150 churches have been destroyed or closed down in Jakarta and throughout the island of Java over the last several years. In the last two months there have been 60 churches closed down, mainly in West Java.”

The dramatic case of the three Sunday school teachers on West Java highlights the troubling case of Christians in Indonesia. Their verdict will probably be appealed. Pray that true justice may be served.

Pray also for the entire Christian community in Indonesia. Christian Aid’s contact writes, “The churches in Indonesia do not stand alone. We are part of the international body of Christ, and we need your support at this time. Please join with use in a time of prayer September 7 – 21.”

For more information, write insider@christianaid.org and put E-ALERT 750-PERS on the subject line.

Christian Aid Mission email: insider@christianaid.org phone: 434-977-5650

I'm looking for the perfect gift for Bonnie's big 18th b-day. I'm so stuck. If anyone has any suggestions email me.

We haven't even released our first album but I'm thinking it would be fun to do a Christmas album! We wrote down a preliminary list of song we would like to do. It's nice because all the Christmas Carols are not copyright.

The driveway is still in a mess. At least it hasn't rained yet!

Bonnie's inspired me to take better care of my tresses. So, here's the before the TLC treatment.

What a full day we had! We left the house early and got home late. At the surprise birthday party we were at this afternoon this little gal was too cute. That poor frog looks a little stiff!

Some of the kids treed a mouse. I think Bonnie's going to post the picture of him. If she doesn't I will. He was SO cute. It was just a little tree too. Mouse sized!

We were able to sing at the party too. Seems like we’ve been doing a lot of impromptu singing recently. Two weeks count down to leaving on tour! It’s going to be so exciting getting back on the road again. The digital camera is going to come in handy taking pictures of all the beautiful western sunsets.

*yawn*

This is almost what I feel like tonight.

We started the daunting task of cleaning the driveway today! After we got it all torn apart we got the call to get over to our empty lot to move 80 yards of fill. Dirt, rocks, an and occasional root was flattened by hand. Well, the dump truck did pack some of it down, but we did most of it.

Tonight we played outdoors with the band out at a fireworks display. It was getting pretty cool out there as the night wore on. They surprised us and asked us to do some family numbers during halftime. It was great! I love a good surprise.

Well, it's getting late and we're singing tomorrow so I should go and get some sleep!

Happy September everyone! August has flown by and left some happy memories.

• my 21st birthday
• the bus passed inspection
• a new powered drivers seat for dad
• Vincent's 16th b-day
• my room was painted
• picture for the CD cover was taken
• BBQ at the empty lot

As we move forward into September the big topic is the trip. I started packing yesterday. Two shirts are in the 'go' pile. And I started to look for the right bags to put everything in. One problem with packing for a trip like this is everything we take gets washed over and over and over again, so we end up ruining everything we bring, or just about. So the key is to bring things you like but wouldn't mind throwing out or demoting to a work outfit when returning home. And since we will be in so many different climates having a summer, fall and winter clothing at your finger tips is important.

Till next time...

This photo was taken a few days ago by yours truly.




Well, The CD is coming along. Our graphic designer sent us the proofs and we sent her the final typo fixes. The proofs look so cool! It's hard to believe this is actually winding down and all this hard work and stress is going to pay off.

Keep up your prayers for the people in the south so devestated by Katrina. What a mess those poor people are in. It's very strange how we've had the TV on so much watching this unfold. It's much easier to imagine yourself in their postition when you actually see it opposed to hearing about it on the radio or reading about it online.

I fixed the link to Lindsay's blog. I had the http twice. That would do it. Yep. Sorry girl!

Just put Grace's blog on the list. It's showing up but not working. : (

Touching on what Grace said in the post 'Knight in Shining Armor'. How true we sometimes place such a big importance on 'requirements' for our future mate to live up to. After you've lived a while you find no one is perfect. No one. Not even your parents.

Parents have some really good thoughts about mates and waiting for 'Mr. Right' to pop out of the woodwork. They've lived a lot long than us and have our best in mind. Don't worry about how tall, how short, how strong, how weak, if he has green eyes or blue. If you're seeking God and His will, He will provide us with all we need for life. Even a mate. In the mean time enjoy being a single girl!

The birthday boy was blindfolded and disoriented and driven to a wooded area where we unblindfolded him and climbed a mountain with friends. He was so anxious to get the blindfold off. =)




Thanks for all your b-day greetings for him!

The buzz around here is Katrina. Fox News is playing it up big. (I suppose it really is big, but the media likes to play bad things up. Too bad they don't do the same thing with good stories.) With concerns for human life and oil prices which are expected to rise in result of this storm, it’s not a pleasant subject. (Just what we need for our trip, higher fuel prices!) Those poor people trapped down there. I just got up to see the TV. Some crazy kids are out on the beach getting splashed by 60 ft. waves. Crazy! They are predicting New Orleans to be under 20 ft. of water by tomorrow this time. Serious stuff. A lady in line to get into a shelter said 'pray, it's in the Lord's hands'. That's all most of us can do.

Happy Birthday!

Vincent my ‘big’ brother turns 16 today.
That means he’s old enough to drive a four-wheeler on public trails, get his driving permits, and of course now he will be motivated to fix the Honda in the driveway.

Drop him a happy birthday note here.

Oh, he's calling me to help him cut his hair......

Bye!

I was walking to work Monday. It was a beautiful day, we've been having some real winners recently. The fall weather in New England is so perfect! Nice and cool at night and 70+ during the day. So, I'm on my way to work. I pass an apartment complex on my route and once in a while I see this old guy standing out on the driveway just hanging out, watching people go by. This time he was sitting on a bench. I've been having a better response from people who know me at least by face as opposed to total a stranger on the sidewalk. I'd waved and said hello a couple times to him so I figured I wouldn't have a problem breaking the ice. I walked up and said "Hi" and offered him the IQ test. Turns out he's extremely hard of hearing. He wasn't too sure about the IQ test so I started talking to him and asked if he was good enough to go to heaven. He had to have me repeat myself several times loudly for him to understand the question. He told me he had relatives who were nuns and priests so he was pretty sure he'd go to heaven. I asked if he'd broken any of the ten commandments. Turns out he did lie but I couldn't get him to admit he had stolen anything. Remember, I'm yelling all this 6 inches from his face. I left him with a "Are you Good Enough to go to Heaven?" tract. I hope he reads better than he hears!

I painted the rest of my room! I just have a little trim to finish but I'm not going to work on that till next spring. The red really makes my room look smaller but I'm ready for the cozy look. That white made it look like a hospital. I only put one coat on so it looks textured. Someone suggested I put a glaze over it to finish it off. While I was waiting for the paint in the mixer at Wal-Mart I found the glaze for $12.and something. But, you know, I like the way the wall looks now. I'm not going to fix something that ain't broke!

Home sweet home. Just got back from the last concert of the season. Yay! We were short a lot of people but we managed to pull of on hour worth of stuff. Bonnie did an excellent job on the trumpet with her sidekick Lauren. Half of us were under the tent and the lower brass section was unprotected, except for Mr. Cass who remembered his umbrella. Thankfully it didn't rain.

Since I blogged last we bought a whole box of tracks. In the box was one of the coolest books I've ever read! Every Christian should read Out of the Comfort Zone. (Can't find underline tool.) I couldn't put it down. It's the autobiography of Ray Comfort, a Christian and street preacher. He also started started this ministry. It was a very inspiring read! What God can do with people willing to let Him use them. So, I've been starting my witnessing journey by passing out tracks to everyone who will take one. First day everyone took them, probably a good thing, since that encouraged me to pass out more. Today I got 3 or 4 rejections. "Do not be weary in well doing." Vincent was upset he didn't think to bring more with us to band. We played in the center of town with people milling around. He ran out and had to use mine. Bonnie made copies of the "Why Evolution is Stupid" and gave it to three people in band. We needed more of those too.

Here is a young man putting Ray Comfort's teaching into practice. Way to go Kaleb!

Singing in the Rain

We didn’t actually sing in the rain. But it was raining outside!

The band had a concert up in New Hampshire yesterday evening. They invited us to do intermission. We left really early to get a good spot to park the bus. It was a nice drive in our ac equipped bus. It’s been SO hot up here. I groaned about the short stretch of ’road construction’ that made the normally scenic town look like a war zone. Bonnie told me I shouldn’t complain about those things, lest I sound snobby. Well, we find a parking spot and get out. Hissssssssssssss. What is that!? The back tire has a bolt with a head the size of a quarter right through it! We’re assuming we picked it up at the construction zone.Ehem. Our first flat ever. Funny, how we were just talking about flats and how we had never gotten one. Vincent slapped a chain on it and we were able to drive home no problem, but they are going to change it soon, before the inspection.

So anyway, we unloaded our stuff and brought it under the tent they provided. Eventually the director arrived and we discussed where to have the concert, indoors or under the tent. We thought indoors would be the best bet. So we carted our stuff inside through the rain. We only did bluegrass and a cappela so we didn't have a huge amount of stuff to carry. The band sounded great! Mr. R wants to take us all of us tour to Canada and Europe. Hehe. We had a whole row of trumpets! Bonnie did an awesome job holding down the 1st part by herself last week but the band sounded a lot fuller with six trumpets, instead of two. The audience was warm and friendly, not typical New England. We got home really late, but all and all it was a fun evening!

Get a load of this puppy.

Suhweet. I wonder how it plays.

Back from the New Hampshire concert. We're beginning to get followers coming to concerts. : ) It's always fun to talk to people afterward. I felt bad for this one gentlemen who came up to afterward and said this is the place he came to die and that is was a crazy house, people yelling at night etc. He said we made his day. I'm not sure if he was a Christian but he smiled and nodded when I talked about Jesus. I'm going to be praying for him. I can't imagine being trapped in a place like that. I know things could be a lot worse. *Bonnie just handed me a green bean. Fresh from the side porch garden. That was good.* Anyway, I was reading a book about nursing homes. This country needs to reform nursing homes, but I'm not interested in having the government do it. Federal funding is not the answer!