Family times

We have my sister Bonnie and her four children visiting this week. They enjoy getting a break from Duluth city life and we all love being together.

Michael and I took three of the children to do chores for some friends of ours that were on a trip. Brittany, Devin and Ashley had a great time seeing the cows, goats, turkeys, cats, and dog. I had fun just watching the expressions on their faces. : )

The trio.

Ashley trying to milk a cow.

Devin and the Bull.

Brittany watching the Bull.

Ashley and the goats.

Devin in the barn loft.

They were impressed at the size of the tractor.

Brittany



Ashley

Devin

As I write this they are outside catching and playing with frogs. If you could have peeked in on us this morning you would have heard me saying, "No Devin, you cannot let the frog go in the house." and "Please take that frog away, I really don't like to look at frogs while I am eating."

Also, earlier this week, they were catching crickets and feeding them to some large spiders they had found. You see, they are really enjoying their time here.

They are also helping to cook meals and Matthew made some exceptionally good double chocolate cookies!

Our Once Great Nation

Thursday we went to Duluth again to do some more pro-life work. We took some "Family Value Surveys" and held signs in front of Planned Parenthood.

The surveys are informational surveys, the questions are geared to inform people about Planned Parenthood and it's wicked agenda. One of the first questions is "Do you think Planned Parenthood is a good or bad organization?" Most answer "good", then we ask "Did you know that Planned Parenthood is the nations largest provider of abortions?", at this point we have had a few people say "no, I didn't know that!" then they ask to change their first answer to "bad". These people are the minority and the over all outlook is not good, in fact it is quit bleak.

Our nation has been in a free fall for some time now and it is only God's amazing mercy that has kept us from hitting the bottom. Yet I am sure that judgment is coming...soon. The blood of the innocent babies cries out from the ground, the wickedness of the people stinks in God's nostrils and the apathy of the church to all of this, is like a slap in the face of the Almighty. How can God bless America?

What mercies our great God has shown, to give us a little more time to prepare for the persecution coming, but the time is short. It is time, NOW to prepare our hearts before the Lord. "Choose you this day whom you will serve." (Joshua 24:15)

In March I wrote this in my diary:

"I do not want to be an ordinary Christian, neither do I want fame or recognition. I wish to be "on fire" in the full sense of the term, burnt up for Jesus...I want to seek God whole heartedly, it's everything or nothing. Either I will serve Him or I will not, let there be no middle ground. I thank my God through Christ Jesus that He has granted me grace to say "yes, I will follow you Lord."

If you do not make the choice now, you will have to make it some day and it will be harder later.

Remember His word:

"Seek ye the LORD, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the LORD'S anger." (Zephaniah 2:3)

"Now set your heart and your soul to seek the LORD your God..."(1 Chronicles 22:19)

"And he did evil, because he prepared not his heart to seek the LORD." (2 Chronicles 12:14)

"Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." (Isaiah 55:6-9)

"But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer." (1 Peter 4:7)

"And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch." (Mark 13:37)

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In which I try to stuff a busy half a week into one post...

Sorry folks, but this is going to be another long post. We have been b-u-s-y!

Friday, we were at the abortion clinic again to plead for the lives of the babies. There were nineteen mothers that went in to kill their children. Most of them walked coldly past us and would not take the literature we offered but one young lady seemed softer and may have been crying, oh how we pray that God would use that softened heart to convict her of the wrong doing of abortion and cause her to come out of that place. Only when we get to Heaven will we know how many babies God used us to help save, we see a few now and then but we trust that there are many more that we know nothing about.

One couple was very angry with us for talking to them and when one of our group mentioned something about God to them, the man said "There is no such thing! Haven't you ever heard about evolution?" Reminds me of these verses:

But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. (2 Corinthians 4:3-6)

Saturday we cleaned house. : )

Sunday, we had some friends over and we all had a good time.

Monday, I slept in late...yea!...and yuck. Ya know how it feels, it's nice to get the sleep you needed but then the day feels shorter...you know what I mean?

Tuesday, we went to the abortion clinic where twelve mothers went in. Nothing special happened that we know of, but we did sense God's presence with us.

After that, we went to give the gospel with Steve and Josh near a major bus stop. There were bunches of people standing around waiting for buses to come, so we held our signs and read scripture out loud. Several people came to talk to us; there was a catholic, a quacker and a lady that said we were a "disgrace." A couple of Mormon missionaries stopped briefly and a woman told my mother that women who believe they have to wear long dresses are "delusional and deceived," when my Mom told her "Nobody makes me wear long dresses, I wear them because I love wearing them" the lady said "You are delusional and deceived."

One man asked what church or denomination we were affiliated with, I told him 'no church or denomination, we just follow the Bible.' That really made him curious and he began asking more questions. I was able to give him the gospel which he already knew in theory quit well since he had been an 'evangelical' in the past, but after talking to him for a while it was evident that he did not have the Spirit of God. He said that the Bible was hard to understand and did not give enough specific instructions in practical matters. My Mom and I tried to explain to him that the scriptures can only be understood if the Spirit of God reveals it to you. He said that he was following the philosophies of Buda but was not "dumb enough to bow down to idols and all that."

He was very open to listen to us, even saying that he did not want to blow us off. He said that the thing that made him want to talk to us was the fact that we were dressed modestly and he could tell that "something was different." When he had to leave, after a long conversation, he said that he would like to talk more and would stop by when he saw us out there again.

Praise God! Please pray for this man, his name is Steve.

At one point there were three of our group standing near the door of a store, when out came a worker saying "I don't want you telling people that they will go to hell if they shop here. Move over here" and he indicated an area where they could not go. Since they were not blocking the store door, they told him that it was a public sidewalk and they had the right to stay there. Then he took one of our guys by the waist and tried to drag him to the spot! At which point he was told that they would call the police, he then left yelling curses at them.

When we were preparing to leave, I noticed a young person all dressed in black standing near-by. I asked my Mom if she wanted to talk to that person (we could not tell if they were a man or woman), she was not sure and began to pray about it, when along came a lady interrupting the prayer saying, "I need help, could you help me?" She then proceeded to talk about how terrible she looked and how she had sued a hair stylist over a bad job on her hair four years ago, etc. At that point the Lord quietly spoke to me that I was supposed to go talk to that young person, then Steve motioned to me and said that the Lord had told him that this woman was a distraction and that I was supposed to go talk to that person. So I did.

That young person turned out to be a young man who had never read the Bible, he didn't know the first thing about God or his word. It was a challenge to put into a few words the creation message, sin, judgment, Heaven and hell and the gospel, but I know that it was not me talking so much as it was the Lord speaking through me. If I tried to tell you now all that I said, I could not do it, but the words were there at the moment of need. God is so faithful! Well, the Lord had me tell that guy that he was on a "fast track towards hell" and that this was the most loving thing a person could say to him, to warn him of destruction coming. He did not want to take the Bible I offered, but I pray that God will use the seed that was planted in his heart.

Giving the gospel is the most exciting thing on earth! I had been praying for opportunities for a long time but had never dreamed of it being like this! God answered far and above what I had expected and He is giving me the boldness to speak. If I think about it, I get nervous but if I just leave it with the Lord and let Him lead me, He does...every time!

Later that day my Mom and I had a nice time shopping with my sister Bonnie, she even bought us a Papa Murphy's pizza! Thank you Bonnie!

Today was a garden day and our batch of thirty egg layer chicks came in the mail...I'll post a picture latter when they are up-loaded.

I'm excited about what God is doing, just knowing the Lord Jesus Christ is exciting!

May our Lord watch over you all and keep you in His loving care.

A day with 'little' blessings

I'm back.

Actually, I was only gone for one day on Monday. Things changed and I was not needed after that. But Monday was fun. I love those children!

We made breakfast together, did various chores and spent some time in Bible reading and prayer, it is a joy to reinforce those things that they are already being taught. Among other things we had a wonderful walk on a Lake Superior beach and had a looong 'foot race'.

Children are such a special gift from God and it greatly sobers me to think about the effect we can have on their lives for eternity. Every word, every action, every day, is making a lasting impression on their young minds and how they learn to view this world. Parents of course have the most impact but what about us, sisters, friends and neighbors? We too have a part in shaping those characters, we need to stay close to or Lord Jesus so His light will shine through us to them.

A sun rise picture my Mom took.

The last couple of days have been spent in gardening...picking more beans and broccoli etc. and cleaning house. I mean kind of major cleaning. I know it's not spring or winter but we never seem to follow those cleaning schedules, so we are doing it now.

Have a blessed day walking with Christ!

A Week In Our Life

I keep trying to find time to write this post but our week has been jammed packed folks.

On Tuesday we woke up and my Mom said, "Let's butcher fifty of our chickens today!" My brother and I jumped up and down saying "Yeah, butchering day!" ....some of you are beginning to really wonder about us now...well o.k. it did not go quite like that, well actually not at all like that.

It went more like this:

Friday the 1st my Mom says, "The chickens are so big now, I think we need to plan on butchering on Tuesday"

Silence.

We try to take in this unwelcome, though expected, news.

Then a few weak smiles are displayed as we pump ourselves up for this yearly task.

Plans are made, butchering implements prepared, buckets made ready, makeshift table set up. By Monday night all is ready.

Tuesday morning my Mom runs to the local feed store to rent the feather plucker, she returns and we begin.

Three and a half hours later we have fifteen done.

Something is wrong, this is way too slow. The feathers won't come off well, the pin feathers are terrible.

Then a discovery is made...we have been turning the feather plucker on in the wrong direction! Oh what joy now, as the feathers fly off and pin feather picking becomes minimal.

It took us all day to butcher those fifty chickens and most of the day Wednesday to package them. We were wiped out by then... but wait, the week is not over yet.

Thursday rolled around, my Mom and brother headed for town to do some pro-life work, while I stayed home to care for the some-what neglected garden. There were tons of weeds to pull and I picked our first green beans this year and lots of broccoli. I know it is late for these things but we had a very cold spring and had to plant almost four weeks late. We keep praying that God will provide us with the produce we need and he is doing just that! I am so thankful.

Our "Eastern garden" as it is called around here.

Our "Western garden"

Broccoli!

Friday we woke up around 5:00 a.m., did our various chores and headed for Duluth MN where we arrived at the abortion clinic in time to begin Sidewalk Counseling. We try to be there every time they are committing abortions so that we can plead with the mothers not to kill their precious little ones. It is heart wrenching to see those mothers going into that place, in order to destroy the lives of their children. Most hurry past us and though they hear what we say to them, they will not stop but quicken their steps. It reminds me of the verse that says:

Their feet run to evil, and they are swift to shed innocent blood; their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; desolation and destruction are in their highways. (Isaiah 59:7)

We know that only God can open up their eyes to understand the wickedness of their ways, we pray that He will show them and they will spare the life of their little one.

As we stood on the sidewalk on Friday, praying and singing songs to God, my Mom began talking to one lady she thought was going for an abortion. The lady said "I don't want you to talk to me." We usually keep talking when they say that, because their baby has no voice yet and God has put us there as the last voice of reason they will hear before going into the building. So when this woman said that, my Mom kept talking. Then out of the building came a woman who volunteers to; 'help' the woman into the building, where they will kill their child and to be a "legal observer" to make sure we follow the law, (kind of ironic isn't it? who are the ones killing people?). So, this woman by the name of Mrs. Katz started yelling at my Mom. She yelled and yelled, then went and stood in my Mom's face continuing to yell at her for talking to that other lady. My Mom told her that she has a right to talk to those other ladies, but Mrs. Katz would not listen, so finally my brother told her "You are breaking the injunction, you are not supposed to talk to us." (There is a court injunction that says we cannot come within 25 feet of the door or gate and that they cannot talk to us or interfere with our work). She soon went back to the building after that, but we were told later that the woman my Mom had originally been talking to, was part of a Union and the Union had filed a complaint against my Mom, very interesting, we'll see where this goes.

Please do pray for us, that: babies lives will be spared, souls will be saved and that we will keep close to and praising our Lord Jesus Christ. The spiritual battle going on is intense, we need your prayers.

That all happened in the morning so we went home and babysat three children for eight hours, washed laundry and took turns taking much needed naps.

Saturday we butchered forty-five chickens. It went more quickly this time and not just because there were five less to do! Still we did not finish until 6:00 p.m. Praise God for sermons, books on tape and dramatized audio! On Tuesday we listened to "God's Smuggler" by Brother Andrew and a dramatized version of John Bunyun's, Pilgrims Progress: part two, Christiana. We have read and heard these many times before but they continue to speak to us. On Saturday we listened to sermons from Vision Forum by Douglas Philips and Voddie Baucham...and a sermon by Paul Washer on Courtship. What a blessing!

Today is Sunday, I must remind myself you see, because we have been packing chickens most of the day. But now....now, they are done. Did you hear that? DONE!

Only there is one small problem, there are a hundred more of those meat birds in our barn.

At the moment they are cheeping little chicks but in six or seven short weeks they will also need to be butchered.

.

.

Ya know what? I am just not going to think about that right now.

Tomorrow I need to get up early, (read 5:00 a.m.) and go to town where I will act as the Nanny for five children between the ages of two and thirteen. This I am supposed to do all week. I love those children, I really do. I miss them when I can't see them but...tonight I need to get to bed early.

So now you know!

(By the way, I actually love farming, I love growing our own food and all, I really, really do. Just so ya know. : )

Giving the Gospel!

Yesterday was a long and exciting day. Michael and I headed for Duluth at 8:00 a.m. We met up with the rest of our pro-life group, piled into a van and struck out for Virginia MN. Once there we had a meeting with some other pro-lifers, held signs in front of Planned Parenthood, passed out a bunch of literature and then did some surveys.

When back in Duluth, Michael and I along with a friend met up with another group and stood with them to give the gospel to a crowd of sight seers. Three re-production sailing ships had sailed into the Duluth harbor earlier that day and were docked behind the DECC, a large entertainment center in Duluth, the amount of people that turned out to see them was incredible.

Here are a few photos of the ships:

The Schooner Madeline

Sail

The Niagra's rigging

Pride of Baltimore

As we were walking I saw the captain and another man from one of the ships and asked if we could get a picture:

They loved Michael's tri-cornered hat!

We held signs that said: "Jesus Died For Your Sins And Arose From the Dead Turn From Your Sin And Believe For Forgiveness" and "Fear God Stop Sinning Believe and Obey Jesus" and "When You Die Everything You Ever Did - Said Thought Will Be Judged".

We handed out about a hundred tracts and could have given out a thousand more if we had had them. Hundreds of people read the signs, many heard Michael and his friend reading from Romans 1-2 and the story of Nicodemus in John 3. A little distance from us, others from our group, Steve and Josh, took turns street-preaching. Steve's wife Tina was there with their two little girls and the two year old began 'street-preaching' as well, telling people "Stop sinning", "Trust Jesus", "Read your Bible!", all in the most adorable two year old pronunciation.

There were times when people were standing around us waiting for something or other to take place and it was then that the Lord answered a prayer that I have had for a long time. I was able to share the gospel. One young lady from Colorado had just begun reading the Bible and was very open to hear about sin, judgment and Jesus death and resurrection. As I spoke, the Lord kept bringing scriptures to mind and even when I did not know what to say next the words were there, the Holy Spirit taught me at each moment what to say. Praise the Lord!

Another lady had never read the Bible but she was very open to hear the gospel, listening intently. I can now see how the Lord has been preparing me to do this. He needed first to bring me to a place of deeper repentance for sin and more love for His son Jesus Christ. I cannot really describe in words how He prepared me but it causes me to worship Him when I look back over the last few years, even my whole life, and see what He has taught me.

An older lady that I talked to had read some of the Bible but said she took everything other than the words of Jesus as a grain of salt. She told me that she believes that there is a "spark of god in everyone", when I asked her if she could show me that in the Bible she said it was her "interpretation" of the Bible. She did listen to the gospel, though she had already formed more of her own opinion than the others, I pray that God will use the seed that was planted.

Another lady was a very articulate Muslim who tried to turn the conversation in order to proselytize me. She said that I should read the Quran because it's words have never been changed, saying that the Bible's words have been changed. I answered her as best I could but it was a good learning experience for me and shows me some more areas to study.

The last person I talked to was a young girl, probably about twelve years old. She was mad that two ladies had responded with anger to our sign. I talked to her for a short time, encouraging her to read the Bible.

All in all it was an amazing day, we are praising and thanking God for His blessings and for the opportunity to witness for His name. I cannot wait to do it again!