Mom has completed chapter 12 of her book, The Isles Are Singing. Just click on the file below to download. Enjoy!
You can also find chapters one through twelve in a pdf file on the sidebar just below Mom and Dad's profile information.
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July 23. This morning we went to Bread of Life again. It was a good opportunity to see more what the church is like and to meet more people. Pastor Kuykendall started teaching the book of Esther in Sunday school, and he preached on the demoniac of Gadara from Mark chapter 5 during the main meeting. His wife, Michelle, was there today and we were glad to meet her. We appreciated the food they gave us from their little food bank too. Thankful for a good nap this afternoon. When we got up, it was very dark out, and we heard thunder off in the distance. Soon the rains came. Thank you, Lord, for the cooling rains after these very hot and humid days, and a couple very warm nights. Around 5:00 this afternoon, we went over to Kathy M’s house and spent some time with her. Connie had recorded a sermon on heaven by Adrian Rogers, and we listened to that. There was no meeting at EBC this evening as they started this morning having their “evening” meeting at 8:15. Arrived home a little after 7:00 and fixed some supper, made up Trader Joe’s shopping list, and then did dishes.. “And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.” Genesis 1:7 Whatever God commanded should come to pass, it was so. See also verses 9,11,15,24,30. “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.” Hebrews 11:3 July 21. It was laundry day. Then we still had to finish this week’s shopping. Hadn’t gotten to WalMart yet. Went out a little before 9:30. Stopped at Office Depot first to pick up our business cards. They turned out really nice. Saw Mel there (he was getting some business forms) and talked with him a while. Didn’t seem like it took us long to do our WalMart shopping, but it was going on 11:30 when we headed home. Got food put away and made spaghetti for Daddy’s dinner. My afternoon time was spent on youth lessons. “And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.” Genesis 1:2 The same God who created the physical light to shine in the physical darkness and give physical sight to man, later sent the Light of the world to give spiritual light to those who groped about in spiritual darkness. “4In him was life; and the life was the light of men. 5And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not…. 9That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.” John 1:4,5,9 The same God has commanded that Light to shine in our hearts in order to give the light of the knowledge of God’s glory to the world around us. “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.” II Corinthians 4:6 July 22. Heard Daddy get up a little after 6:00 and rolled over thinking I would get myself up in a few minutes. Next thing I knew, it was almost ten ‘til seven. Got up and had my shower, quiet time, and breakfast. Rounded up some supplies to make a greeting card and then made the card. Cut Daddy’s hair. Most of the rest of the day was spent working on the next youth lesson in Proverbs, except for the nice long nap I took this afternoon. “And God saw the light, that it was good….” Genesis 1:4 Everything God made was good. See 1:10,12,18,25, and 31. God is always good. “….the goodness of God endureth continually.” Psalm 52:1b Praise the LORD; for the LORD is good…. Psalm 135:3a The Lord is good to everyone. The LORD is good to all…. Psalm 145:9 July 19. Christy said last night that she got an e-mail from Office Depot saying they were having a penny sale this week. So we decided to go to Office Depot this morning for the penny sale and take our coupon for the free business cards. Then we would get our Aldi shopping done today and have a look at the new Bargain Hunt store too. So off we went this morning around 9:00. At Office Depot, Daddy spent quite a while at the counter while the worker tried to order the business cards. The coupon was for premium color business cards, and she said the order had to be sent out. She tried and tried to order them, but the main office would not accept the order. She said she had not seen any other coupons like the one we had. She finally called the manager, and since there were no conditions with the coupon, they finally decided to make the cards for us in-store, and we can pick them up tomorrow. Okay, that would be fine. Then we hunted around for the penny sales, but could not find them — only a handful of things for 15, 25, or 50 cents. We picked out three packs of pencils. Then I bought nine pencils with fancy erasers on the end to take to my school students in PNG—footballs, soccer balls, basketballs for the guys, and flowers for the girls. Got two packs of pens for the same price per pack as one pencil and will give those to Mike and Dallas. Did our Aldi shopping next, and then on to Bargain Hunt. We decided that was a fitting name for the store — you have to hunt in order to find bargains. 😊 After we got home, I worked for a while on organizing picture files. This afternoon, I tried to work on youth lessons. Microsoft Office was being ornery, however, and I didn’t accomplish as much as I had hoped. They shut down my file a couple times and also kept changing my formatting. This evening, we ended up going to two different church meetings. The Lord directed our path to Berean Baptist first of all. Bro. Joel Spencer from Ambassador Baptist College did the preaching, a wonderful message from Revelation 3 about the church in Philadelphia and how, although they had only a little strength, they kept God’s word and did not deny His name. He said that in time to come, those who persecuted them would come and worship before their feet. He said that they would know that God loved them because they had patiently kept his word, and promised that He would keep them from the tribulation. God told this church that what He opens, no man can shut, and what He shuts no man can open. Rafael asked Daddy to give a five-minute testimony of our ministry which he did after the offering. Later Bro. Spencer wanted Daddy to say John 3:16 in the Owena language so Daddy volunteered me. I thought maybe I could say it rather than sing it, but got stuck half way through so ended up singing the second half of the verse. Mr. Spencer was telling us that in North Carolina alone there are 17,000 Baptist Churches including Independent, Missionary, Free Will, and I believe the fourth was Southern Baptist. I’d like to find statistics for PNG and compare. Before we left, Lewis was given a love offering. Praise the Lord! Some of the men told us about Nations Baptist Church in Shelby. Come to find out, they are meeting in a building just a hop, skip, and a jump from us. They had heard that there was a PNG national missionary there, and they were probably still meeting if we would like to go over. So that’s what we did. When we arrived, it was dark inside as the missionary was showing a video of his work. It was not a missionary from Papua New Guinea, but we did enjoy hearing about the missionary’s work and getting to know him and his family and learning about his burden. “He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.” Revelation 22:20 July 20. This morning, we started out a little before 9:30, planning to do our WalMart shopping and then pick up our business cards at Office Depot. We never did get to WalMart. As we were coming down the hill to the intersection just before WalMart intersection, we could see that the turn lanes into WM were blocked off and there were several emergency vehicles there. So we turned left at the intersection at the bottom of the hill and went to Office Depot. Figured we would go to WM afterward. It wasn’t quite time to pick up our business cards at Ofiice Depot, but we checked to see if they were nearly ready. It wouldn’t be long before 10:00 (pickup time) anyway. The worker was having trouble with the color printer, however; and even though we spent close to an hour in the store, she wasn’t able to get them done. She said she would call us when they were ready. In the mean time, we looked around for the penny sales and for some other items we wanted but found to be too expensive. Today we did find penny sale items. Christy sent us a link she had received from Office Depot on her e-mail with some coupons to print. We printed out the coupons and were able to buy a few penny items plus ten 50 cent spiral notebooks to make up for the $5 minimum purchase. By the time we left Offic Depot, both of us were exhausted so decided not to go to WalMart today. We found out later that we still wouldn’t have gotten there anyway as the accident, which involved a semi that went through a red light, was not cleaned up until close to noon. After Daddy and I got home, we tried to do some projects but were just too tired so finally took a short nap. I wanted to be up soon enough before Mrs. Ogle came so I would be all ready when she drove in. It was just a few minutes after 12:00 when she arrived, in spite of the fact that there was still a long line of traffic and quite a delay. We went to Ruby Tuesday for lunch together and enjoyed a special time of fellowship. It was close to 2:00 when Mrs. Ogle dropped me off back home. After talking with Daddy a few minutes, we both went for another nap. It has just been one of those days when the body doesn’t seem to want to get going. I didn’t even feel like getting up after nap so just lay there for a while longer even though I was no longer sleeping. Christy had gotten home early today and was already having her nap when I came back from lunch with Lisa. This afternoon, I tried doing a bit more work on the culture notes for the missionary training course. It can be very frustrating when the computer keeps changing things in my document because they don’t know Pidgin. I tried to get all the proofing turned off yesterday, but they were still changing my small i’s to be capital I’s. I came to the end of Revelation, and now it’s back to the beginning—Genesis 1. It’s always exciting to finish and to start again too, looking for new treasures. “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” Genesis 1:1 Here are some interesting cross references to Genesis 1:1. In Proverbs 8:22-24, wisdom is speaking and says, 22The LORD possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old. 23I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was. 24When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water.” July 17. Monday. Always a busy day. After getting a thank you note written and out in the mail for Love Valley, the rest of the morning was spent in the kitchen. First, I did the dishes that were left from last night. There weren’t very many. Then I diced and cooked veggies (potatoes, carrots, celery) for a chicken pot pie for Daddy and Christy, diced up the chicken and added it to the veggies along with some frozen peas, made a crust, and set all that aside for a bit while I started cutting up veggies for my green soup—spinach, napa cabbage, zucchini, carrots, onions, celery, millet. Added herbs and spices and put that on to cook. Then made a gravy for the pot pie, put all the ingredients into the crust in the casserole dish, and popped that into the oven. Daddy went off to Kmart to exchange the suitcases we had bought the other day. He was able to get two smaller ones that match — not quite as nice as the bigger ones, but they are good, and at least they are the right size. While things were cooking, I started planning a letterhead with our logo. Finished planning that after nap, and then wrote a letter to Pastor Sharpeta to confirm our coming to their missions conference in October. Spent some time making categorized pictures files in this computer so I can easily find pictures for future use. “Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book.” Revelation 22:7 July 18. I was thankful to be able to get some things done at the computer today. Laundry came first though. Then I started on a letter. Then I wrote an e-mail and started setting up a file for the culture course for the missionary training school. The computer then decided it was going to act up and be slow. This afternoon, I finally got started on the course notes and worked on that most of the afternoon. It was frustrating trying to find out how to turn off the spelling so the computer wouldn’t keep correcting my Pidgin. Never did figure it out. “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” Revelation 22:17 Let us keep on inviting them to “Come”. Praise God, whosoever will may take of the water of life freely!
July 16. It was refreshing just to rest and go to church today after such a busy week. Mrs. Surrett continued her lesson on making the right choices. And Pastor Ogle continued his preaching on Peter, A Man Like Us, his text again in Luke chapter 12. His theme, from verses 25-48 was “Watch.” A very sobering and thought-provoking message. We all rode to church and back in Christy’s car this morning because our car seats were still wet. Came home by way of SC where we filled up Christy’s gas tank and Daddy’s coffee mug. It was after 2:00 when we finished lunch and lay down for nap, and I slept for two hours. That gave me only a little over an hour before we headed back to church again. The van was dry enough for us to use that this evening. It is much more comfortable for me than Christy’s car. This evening Pastor Ogle finished his series on dress. Talked with Naomi and then Kathy Mc a while before the meeting, and with MaryBeth and Mrs. O’Malley after the meeting. Arrived home a little after eight and took chicken and cookies (leftovers from last night) over to Danny-Boy’s house. Playing charades July 14. It’s been quite a day, and another very hot and muggy one. After putting laundry in to wash this morning, I got down to business cleaning and reorganizing our bedroom. Daddy helped me sweep the floor and move the bed the opposite direction, giving us more room on the south wall so we could stack boxes that we were packing or had already packed. That way some things could be moved out of the dining room into the bedroom to make room in the dining room for some things in the living room that take up a lot of space and don’t necessarily need to be there. Since we are planning on company tomorrow evening, we will need extra space in the living room for chairs. Took a short sit-down/snack break after doing that work in the bedroom. Then, around 10:30, Daddy and I headed off to town. We wanted to look at luggage and a few other things at Kmart while they are having their big blowout sale. We chose a couple nice pieces of luggage; but after we got home, Daddy double-checked on the web about the size limits for our plane travel, measured the suitcases, and found them too large. So guess we’ll have to take them back and get something a little smaller. At WalMart, we got some nectarines to add to tomorrow night’s fruit salad, cookies, paper plates, mark-down bread, and mark-down brownies. Last stop was the discount food mart where we got chicken for tomorrow night also. It was already 12:30 when we got home. No time to cook Daddy a dinner so he had his lunch at noon, and I cooked him some spinach and a hamburger this evening. This afternoon, I did a little more organizing in the dining room and bedroom until Christy got up from her nap. Then I worked on cleaning, reorganizing, and moving stuff out of the living room and getting it set up for company tomorrow. By then it was time to get Daddy’s supper, and then my supper. “And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.” Revelation 21:6 When Christ died on the cross, He cried “It is finished.” The work of salvation was done. When the judgment of the world is complete and former things are passed away and all things are become new, again we will hear the cry “It is done.” And praise God, all who are thirsty may drink freely of the water of life, now and forever! July 15. Another very busy day – cleaning, cooking, and enjoying company. Today we worked mostly in the kitchen — swept and mopped the floor, rearranged cupboards so there was more space to put some things out of sight, made fruit salad. Connie cleaned her and Christy’s bathroom and swept the living room. Christy did their laundry. After lunch, I prepared the dough for dinner rolls before having nap. After nap, I greased some muffin tins, kneaded the dough a bit more, cut it into 24 pieces, and put it into the muffin tins to rise. In the meantime, I set out paper plates, bowls, and napkins; scrounged through the china cabinet drawer until I found enough plasticware; cut the brownies in half and set them on the table; set out a plate of cookies. Christy started washing dishes, and then the storm came, fast and furious — a driving rain with lightning and thunder. After the storm had been going a while, Daddy looked out the bedroom window and saw that he had never gone out and shut the car windows. They were both wide open. Oops! Too late now. Can’t go out when it’s storming like this. By the time he was able to go out, the front seats were both sopping wet. He took out a couple dry towels to put on the seats to sop up the water. They probably won’t be dry before church tomorrow, however. When Connie’s brownies were done baking, I put the rolls into the oven to bake. And when the storm had died down, Daddy went down to the store to get a couple disposable baking pans to cook the chicken in and some ice to put in the cooler so we could put bottled water in there to get cold. As soon as the rolls were done, I got a pan of plain chicken ready to go into the oven. Then I worked at getting the rolls out of the muffin tins, and I set them out to cool. Had a drink and snack and a short sit-down time before wrapping some of the rolls in towels on a plate, ready to be served. About 4:45, I put the barbecue chicken in the oven to get hot. It was precooked. Then about 5:00, the Rices arrived — Kevin and Dawn and five of the children. Since the chicken wasn’t done, we sat and talked for a while and played Apples to Apples. At 6:00, I checked the chicken, and it still wasn’t done. I turned the oven up, but at 6:30, the plain chicken still wasn’t done, and the barbecue chicken was barely hot. The oven didn’t even seem to be that hot so we are wondering if the big crack we heard after one of the lightning flashes had something to do with the oven. We went ahead and transferred the chicken to frying pans and put it on the stove top to finish cooking. Then we started eating the other foods. Dawn had brought pasta salad and mashed potatoes. Then there were rolls, fruit salad with whipped cream, brownies and cookies, black cherry/grape juice and cranberry/pomegranate juice. It didn’t take long for the barbecue chicken to get hot on top of the stove, and almost everyone had some of that. When the plain chicken was done, Christy had a piece of that. After we ate, we finished the Apples to Apples game with Zachariah as the winner. After that, we just talked for a while; and before they left, we played a game of charades. It was exciting to hear that Summer had been saved last week when she went with a friend to revival meetings in Salisbury. She is to be baptized tomorrow. We really enjoyed the evening together. In Revelation chapters 2 and 3, we saw twelve rewards given to those believers who overcome. Here in chapter 21 verse 7, we find three others. “He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.”
July 12. First order of business today was to make a shopping list for tomorrow. Following that, I called a friend and enjoyed chatting with her for a few minutes. Finished sending out the rest of the e-mail July updates to our supporters. And started filling in my August schedule. Late morning, Daddy went to Gaffney to get milk for C&C. This evening we went to Love Valley Baptist Church, Pastor Barry Philbeck. Love Valley is quite a large church, and we had a wonderful time there with some very sweet people. So many people shook our hands and welcomed us. It was manifest throughout the service and the preaching that the pastor and his people love the Lord, love one another, love lost souls, and love missions. After a time of singing, the pastor preached from Jeremiah 18 about the Potter taking a vessel that had been marred and making it again into a new vessel, useful to the Potter, and perhaps even more beautiful than the original vessel. He used it as an example to show how the Lord not only takes marred, broken, and wicked sinners of all kinds and makes them new creatures, but He also takes believers who have been marred by sin and have repented and acknowledged their sin, and He makes them again into a new vessel. After the invitation, Pastor Philbeck had Daddy come up and take fifteen minutes to present our work. And afterward, the pastor asked the people if they would like to take us on for support. Praise the Lord for continuing to increase our support. Many people came by our display table afterward, and many took time to talk with us. Talked at length with two ladies who work with the bus children. Enjoyed talking with the pastor’s wife for a while, and she handed me a gift bag of practical items from the ladies of the church. We were also given a love gift from the church. It was 9:30 or later when we got home. “2And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. 4And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.” Revelation 21:2-4 When we became new creatures, old things were passed away; but how much better when we enter the holy city and the former things are passed away forever. July 13. A very warm and humid day. Didn’t even get cold in the grocery stores this morning. After I finished writing a thank you note this morning and getting it out in the mail, Daddy and I headed for town to do our shopping — Aldi, WalMart, Kmart, and Mighty Dollar. Arrived home about 11:40. Put away food and then had lunch. Daddy went off to Subway for his lunch today as there weren’t any leftovers and there was no time to prepare a meal. This afternoon, Daddy and I spent a good amount of time trying to get the second quarter income report straightened out. “And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.” Revelation 21:5 When we were saved, we became new creatures. When we are eternally with the Saviour, everything will be new. Amen!
July 10. What a busy day it has been! Didn’t get up until 6:30, but it took me a long time to get to sleep last night. I was all out of breakfast grain so put some on to cook while I finished my quiet time and ate a bowl of fruit. After having some amaranth with seaweed and walnuts, I started up the Compaq and deleted most of the files and uninstalled several programs. Daddy went off to town — to see about having prayer cards made at WalMart, look for tools at Harbour Freight, pay the Verizon bill, and do a couple other things before arriving home just before noon. While some of the programs were uninstalling from the Compaq, I started making up a new menu/diet plan for myself. (Have yet to finish that.) It was around 10:30 when I went to the kitchen to start making soup. When that was done and on to cook, I put some carrots on to cook for Daddy; and when Connie’s soup was done, I started cooking Daddy’s hamburger for his dinner. This afternoon, I got the monthly update written and called Jean to make arrangements to go visit her and Doug again. Daddy and I worked on a needs list for items to purchase and ship to PNG. Then I made a veggie casserole and stuck it in the oven; and while it was cooking, Daddy and I carried ice pops down to the neighbors. Renee didn’t answer the door, but there was a young girl outside from one of the houses around the corner. She wondered if we had ice cream in the bag. We told her it was and told her she could have it if no one came to the door. We waited a while, and since nobody answered, we gave the popsicles to the girl to take home. Next we took the ice cream sandwiches over to Danny Boy’s house. He and Barbara were happy to get them. After supper, I wrote four or five e-mails. Then there was a large mountain of dishes to be washed since Connie and I both did a lot of kitchen work today. I definitely needed someone to dry dishes this evening, and was thankful for Daddy’s willingness to help out. July 11. Thankful for a better night’s sleep last night. Got up a little earlier and washed my hair. Had quiet time. Put laundry in to wash. Had breakfast. Daddy went off to WalMart to get the prayer cards made. Shopped around at Kmart while he was waiting. Kmart is having a big sale this week. I hung out the clothes and then printed out the July updates that need to be mailed. Connie, folded, stuffed, stamped, and sealed them, and put them out for the letter carrier. Then I started on the July updates that go by e-mail. Got part of those done before Daddy arrived home and we got ready to go over and visit Doug and Jean. We took our slide presentation and showed it to them. When we got back it was lunch time, and then nap time. Slept so hard at nap time (just like it was night) I could hardly get up. When I woke up, I had to stop and figure out that it was afternoon and not morning. Daddy got the clothes in before I was good and awake. What did I do this afternoon? Got last week’s journal notes ready and sent off to Connie. Organized the journals that were on the shelf in our bedroom and put them all in bags. Cleaned some other books off the shelves as well. Working on getting those shelves all cleaned off so we can take them apart and pack them. After supper, I cleaned the bathroom. “Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.” Revelation 20:6 Praise God for the hope of the first resurrection! July 9. Mrs. Surrett finished a lesson this morning called “A Gift of Yourself”. She had started it last week, but I wasn’t there. The theme of the lesson is giving your husband the gift of virtuous character and unselfish service, the gift of love, the gift of submission, and the gift of praise and encouragement. All these gifts will always fit, never be inappropriate, and never wear out. When she finished that lesson, she started a lesson on “Make the Right Choices.” - choosing to obey. Pastor Ogle’s message this morning was from Luke 12:1-12, Special Instructions. It was quite late when we got home for dinner as we talked with Dorothy J for a bit after the meeting and then went by way of Flying J in SC to get gas. By the time we had lunch and went for nap, it was already 3:00. This evening Pastor Ogle continued his series on dress. It is obvious that he has been very thorough in his study, and he has some very good points. We would like to get a copy of his outlines. Afterward, there was leadership training so we were a bit late getting home again. |
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