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Newsletter Mailing Day at Our Office

We are so grateful for the help for this mailing that we do four times a year.

Our preschool granddaughter Gloria enjoyed helping.  She was here for the day while her mom went on a school field trip with an older sister. 

Cerwin even got in on the action.  I think he would rather be driving truck or building a chapel!  I am sure glad for his help in taking 39 mail trays to the post office.

Thanks Everyone!

From Pennsylvania Dutch Country

If you don’t understand Pennsylvania Dutch or the resulting accent when translated into English, this story may not seem funny to you. But, those of us who live in an area where Pennsylvania Dutch and English are mixed, can understand how this could happen.  I am told the story is true and was given the name of the store where it happened.

A certain man went to a local store to buy some chemicals for his farm.

The clerk said, “You must be certified to purchase this.”

The man (thinking he said “thirty-five”) replied, “That’s OK, I’m certy-six.

Beautiful Amaryllis

The other day our daughter-in-law Kristen e-mailed these photos to me.  I thought you would enjoy them.  Their son Ian shows that they are taller than him.

“Then God said, ‘Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.’ and it was so”  Genesis 1:11 NIV.  

Friends!

One of life’s greatest treasures is the friends we make along the way.  We met Merle and Rita Nisly, Red Lake, Ontario, Canada (President of Impact North Ministries), when we were youth advisors at church and took a dozen teenagers to live on the Pikangikum Reserve to teach Bible School for a week.  Cerwin and I were team leaders in 1986, 1987, and 1988. 

Gary and Orpha Stevens and Ray and Eva Nolt were also leaders involved in taking teams to Pikangikum.  The eight of us enjoy renewing our friendship each year when Merle and Rita are in the area for an Impact North Ministry Banquet. 

Cerwin, Merle, Rita, Orpha, Gary, Ray, and Eva relax around the table last night after the meal.

Orpha, right, is looking at Merle and Rita’s scrapbook from their December visit to Madagascar where their daughter, her husband, and four grandaughters serve as missionaries.

Each year we reminisce about things that happened when we were at Red Lake and Pikagikum and ask Merle and Rita about the people we remembered from the area.

Christians may not always see eye-to-eye

But they can always walk arm-in-arm.

“Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.  No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us”  1 John 4:11& 12 NIV.

Birthday Visit Continued

Josh and Jenna stayed overnight for their birthday visit and were awake early Saturday morning for their visit to Chuck E. Cheeses.  We always go there first thing in the morning (doors open at 9:00 AM) because most people don’t come until 10:00 or 10:30 AM.  That way we have the place to ourselves for the first hour.  The older children usually talk me into staying two hours!

Skee-ball is one of Josh and Jenna’s favorite games. 

Their brunch consisted of cinnamon sticks and pizza.

Josh, Great-Grandma Hershey, Jana

After a few hours of shopping (Five Below, Education Station, Build-A-Bear, Dollar Store, CVS, and a few other stores whose names I don’t remember), we visited their Great-Grandma Hershey (my stepmother) and enjoyed a game of Golf.  The children beat the grandmas!

Jere and Ivan

Lest you think Cerwin was idle all day – he was on call at Ferrellgas and needed to stay close to home, consequently it was a good time for him to help her youngest son, Jere, and son-in-law Ivan work on the remodeling project in Jere and Kristen’s basement – one mile from our house.  They are transforming it into a family room.  Cerwin was pleased to get through the whole day without any calls.

* * *

Our two sons and their wives decided that it was time for a “double-date-night” and were sure that grandpa and grandma would much rather have nine grandchildren then spend a quiet Saturday night at home!

Back:  Jana, Diana, Jared, and Jordan.  Front:  Gloria, Ian, Jenna, Josh, and Nathan.

An Evening With Great-Grandma

Yesterday, after school, we picked up Jenna and Josh (celebrating eleventh birthdays), then stopped at Landis Homes for Cerwin’s mom, and had an early supper at Oregon Dairy.

Each year we and our grandchildren look forward to spending a day together in honor of their birthday.  Somewhere along the line, we included a visit to the children’s great-grandmothers in that celebration. 

 I choose Lobster Bisque in a bread bowl.  It was so-o-o good!

Afterward we went to Mother High’s apartment and played games – always a favorite of the grandchildren.  Before going home, they posed for their annual photo with her.

Memory Lane

Yesterday was the thirty-second anniversary of my mother’s death – March 16, 1974.  She was only fifty-two.  I was thirty and pregnant with our youngest daughter. 

She had a cancerous tumor that burst several weeks before she had any problems.  By the time she had pain, it was too late, as the mass of cancer had spread through her stomach area.  She died two weeks after entering the hospital.

In September 1973 she handed me a small baggy of six or eight crocus bulbs as a gift for our tenth wedding anniversary.  I still remember her saying, “This is not a very pretty gift, but they will be pretty in spring.”

These pictures were taken yesterday.

Because those few bulbs bloomed for the first time in March 1974 – the time of her death – they are a wonderful reminder of her.  I never purchased other crocus bulbs, so that as they multiplied and I moved some to other flower beds, they would still be crocus’ from her.

* * *

Yesterday afternoon as I was watching my brother Clair working the ground, I thought, “Daddy would have enjoyed sitting on our patio and watching the field activity.”  He loved the farm.  He died in 1997 at the age of seventy-seven. 

The house just over the top of the tractor is where he grew up and where he and mom raised me and my four siblings.  Daddy’s father, grandfather, and great-grandfather also owned and cultivated the same land. 

The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance.  Psalm 16:6 NIV

Pray For This Truck Driver

Last night, just before 8:30, a driver named Mark called from Michigan and said, “I need prayer.” 

The reason anyone calls our home/office, or any other field office in Transport For Christ at night, is that our phone numbers are listed on the back of The Road Map of Life New Testaments that chaplains, volunteers, and drivers place in truck stops, travel plazas, and restaurants across the USA and Canada.

I asked, “Are you comfortable telling me why you need prayer tonight and how I can pray for you?”

His Story:

Mark and his wife have gotten to a place in their marriage where each has fallen into a bad pattern of doing his own thing – partly due to the fact that he is away from home so much.  She has become so independent at home, taking care of the house and their daughter, that when he is home he doesn’t feel like part of the family, and all they do is argue.  (A very common thing in over-the-road truck drivers.)

I asked about his relationship with the Lord, and if he died tonight would he go to Heaven?  He wasn’t sure.  He said he tries to pray, but doesn’t think God hears him.

I told him that he wouldn’t be able to “fix” his marriage until his relationship with God was “fixed”.  After a bit more conversation, it was a joy to hear him pray and ask God to forgive him, change him, and take charge of his life.

We talked about a lot of things – especially that he can only change his life and his attitudes.  He cannot change his wife.  That is God’s job.  I encouraged him to stop at chapels for encouragement, Bible study, and worship services when he can.  (I am sending literature so he can see where each chapel is located.)  I gave him the phone number of one of TFC’s chaplains who does Bible studies over the cell phone.

Pray for Mark and His Wife

Ask God to bring him into contact with someone who will mentor him spiritually. 

Pray for his wife.  I gather that she is “religious” but not walking with the Lord.  Ask God to bring her to the place where she realizes her need of a relationship with Him.  Ask Him to bring a godly woman into her life to mentor her. 

Our son Jere was taking some experimental photos with a new camera the other day, and decided to try some shots of their son Jared. 

Jared Was Not Amused!

 The pictures made me laugh.  I hope they bring a smile to your face today!