Jun 16thBaby M
I had the great pleasure of photographing Baby M, not just once, but twice. First a spur of the moment shoot with grandma, who was babysitting when I stopped by on an errand, and again the following week with Mom and Dad.
Sep 27thThe Month of New . . .
Not everything is new this month, but enough is for me to notice. I have a new lens for my camera. Beautiful portrait lens. I’ve been waiting a couple of years to be able to afford some nice glass for this camera, and this piece certainly fits the bill.
Other new things are a new job and a new ministry. A new design for one of my websites. And down below a new brother from Togo. Now on to some more familiar territory . . .
One of my husband’s toys . . .
An interesting shot of a butterfly. I forgot I had manually set the shutter speed, but this was interesting.
And my first shot of a bald eagle.
Nice visit with the folks and the kiddo.
One day while mom and dad were here, we went to Train-O-Rama. You can see the little boy in heaven look in my dad’s eyes as he watches all the trains go round and round.
I wish this would have had more of a National Geographic quality about it, but this is shot number 10,000 from my Canon Digital Rebel XT.
After the trains, it was the lighthouse.
Labor Day weekend . . .
Hanging out with the grandkids . . .
And new and old friends at Pastor’s Training School . . .
I can’t wait to see what God has in store for the coming month.
May 20thWho is your paralytic?
Visiting with my husband’s youngest daughter this week. Of course any time you leave Ohio to the south or the east you have to cross the mighty Ohio River. One of my favorite road trips of all time was when we were headed home one time, and we followed the river all the way from the southernmost point of Ohio up to around the Youngstown area before cuttting back across the state to home. Lots of neat things to see along the way.
Got to meet Rigsby, who we nearly didn’t get to meet because he had a bad go with some Parvo not too many weeks back.
Car shopping. Can’t you just see the JOY oozing out of their pores! (NOT! LOL)
Friday night dinner. Neat place. Three guys from New York got to North Carolina and couldn’t find a decent pizza. Imagine that! I loved the decor. Lots of old oil cans, gas pumps. An old soap box derby car hanging from the ceiling. Plenty of atmosphere along with a pretty good piece of pizza.
I think the highlight of this trip is going to be the worship service I attended this morning. I always enjoy my visits at other churches when I’m away from home – no matter how silly the reason I have for picking one church over another. One year coming back from mom and dad’s I went to the only church that had an early service because I needed to get on the road so I could get the rental car back on time. Today’s silly reason? This was the closest church to the hotel we’re staying at.
It’s always great to meet other believers and see what God is doing outside of my little corner of the world. Today, I got to meet Seb. He sang a couple songs for the Sunday School class, but I really enjoyed the story he told first about 50 years ago in the North Carolina mountains there weren’t any phones, so when his friend got saved, he couldn’t just picked up the phone and call his mom who had been praying for him all those years. He had to sit down and write a letter. The song was about a mom who had gone on to heaven without knowing that her boy was saved, and asking that his name be called so mom would know he was there (in heaven). Neat.
The Sunday school class was a blessing. I hope I always remember the picture the teacher told of running his first marathon and the struggle to make it to the end and the mental battle to make it all the way to the finish line that was even more of a struggle than the physical battle. He told how upon seeing the finish come into view he started to cry and asked for his wife. I guess that’s not an unusual reaction to have. What’s that got to do with anything? The topic today was the last 24 hours of Jesus’ life. As he talked about all that Jesus had gone through for us and the sheer agony of the physical torture that my sin and yours caused him to have to go through, I could just about hear him saying “It is finished” with the tears of a marathon runner who has just made it to the end of an agonizing race. I told the teacher that if I got nothing else today, that one picture made the entire trip worth it.
Of course, that wasn’t the only thing I received from the Lord today. I also got to meet “Squeak” and her husband (who gave up his seat next to his wife for the entire service so I could sit down). It was a real blessing to hear their excitement about the things going on in the church.
And what’s a visit to church without some heavenly manna – food for the soul. I think today’s sermon was just what I needed to hear before heading off to Africa later this week. The text was Mark 2:1-12, where four friends bring their paralyzed friend to Jesus to be healed. These guys were absolutely determined to get their friend to Jesus, and NOTHING was going to stop them.
“It was the faith of the four friends that brought about the miracle. . . . There was no way they were leaving that day without putting their friend right in front of Jesus. . . . They didn’t have another day, and they weren’t going to wait for Jesus to get done.”
I want to remember those words when I’m away, because I won’t have another day, but I want to remember them when I’m back home too. There are lots of paralytics in my life on this side of the pond who need me to bring them to Jesus, and who knows if I’ll have another day.
What’s really neat about today’s message is that the preacher gave me such a picture of Jesus that I felt motivated, not just guilted out. That’s one thing I’ve been blessed by in all my road visits to different churches. No matter how inconsequential my reason for going to a particular church, I’ve always managed to find a place where Jesus Christ is exalted. That’s all I need, and it’s really all I want.
Jul 26thAre Animals Really Without Guile?
You tell me.
My parents are on the last leg of their vacation – stopping back here to pick up the popup camper that they left in our driveway while they traveled to North Carolina and back. So while they were in NC, they got their dog (a little rat terrier that has springs for legs) an orange dinosaur squeaky toy. They brought it in the house today and my dog (a much larger Australian Shepherd) decided he HAD to have the toy. That’s fine, but he tends to rip the squeakers out of them in about 5 minutes. So when mom and dad went to the hotel tonight, we left the toy in the bathroom with the little dog’s travel crate and closed the door.
1:00 am. Husband is sleeping soundly, and I take a break from work and go downstairs to get a drink. Well, I left the bathroom door open. So after I get back upstairs and start working again, I hear my dog get out of bed and go slowly down the stairs. After a couple minutes I hear a single squeak. (I’m starting to crack up about now, but I decided to just hang out and see what was next.)
Before long I hear the pitter patter of little footsteps coming up the stairs, the jump onto the bed, and then I hear it . . . the sound of a squeaky toy being chewed vigorously. LOL
So I get up and go into the bedroom and retrieve the squeaky toy, and sure enough, it’s an orange dinosaur. I took it back down to the bathroom and closed the door this time.
The dog stayed in bed until he could hear me start work again, then he slowly went down the stairs. He was down there quite a while longer this time. No squeaks. I hear him starting to come back upstairs, but he stops on the landing and circles around a bit (complete with heavy sigh) before coming the rest of the way up the stairs and hopping into bed.
And here’s a picture of the little sneak.
