WEDNESDAY'S WORDS ON THURSDAY

Special prayer request.

Barry has been out in Micronesia for about three weeks now. He has been teaching and preaching on Chuuk, Pohnpei, Saipan and Guam. He just called from Guam to say that our friend from Saipan, Kohne Ramon   went out fishing  (for food -- not a fun trip) with his brother-in-law  yesterday.  They were fishing outside of the lagoon.  The boat was swamped and wrecked .  They had to swim over the reef and across the wide lagoon  to the shore.  The brother-in-law has not been found.  Kohne was found on the beach very badly injured. Coral reef is not only dangerous because of the waves but also infection that sets in from the coral.  He is in the hospital on Pohnpei.  Elsie, his wife, is en route right now from Saipan to Pohnpei to see Kohne. 

Kohne and Elsie in England 2006

Please pray for Kohne and Elsie.  Kohne is a pastor of a small Micronesian church on Saipan, a very faithful and genuine Christian.

K IS FOR...

K is for KITTENS -- what else is there?

These two were in the shelter a couple of months ago

(Prisma Colored Pencils and water colors. Size about 4 x 4 inches)

This is for Mrs. Nesbitt and her team on ABC Wednesday.

STOP PRESS!

STERLING WAS ADOPTED TODAY!

I have been volunteering at the shelter since June and he was in there when I came, so I have no idea how long he has been there altogether.  But he was in a nice room with two other cats and was doing quite well.  But today he was chosen.  I didn't know whether to laugh or cry because he has been my favorite all this time.  Before the prospective owners came in, I had just spent about a half an hour with those cats and especially Sterling, who sat snuggled by my side all the time except for a couple of moments when he came on to my knee and looked with that golden/coppery gaze right into my eyes.  Such a sweetheart and not a mean bone in his body.  I hope his new home takes good care of him.

RE: CREATIVE BLOG AWARD

They are all true except #4.  I'm seriously unsociable  -- big handicap for a Pastor's wife, but I managed to hide it most of the time.

As for #10, "My wedding day was not the happiest day of my life."  It goes with #4.  Being in the eye of all that attention was agony.  I would truly have loved to elope but my family and the groom and his family, would have been disappointed-- except for my sister who hated her bridesmaid dress. However, being married to MOTH (the man of the house) was the happiest decision of my life, (not counting my decision to follow Christ).

And I almost blacked out right before the event  in #2.

J is for ...

JackieEvancho

Another Susan Boyle moment!  

I happened upon this a couple of weeks ago while surfing TV.  I don't usually watch American Idol or America's Got Talent, but I hit this event at just the right moment.  Please listen, it will knock your socks off!

I'm taking the risk that many bloggers haven't already seen this, so I apologize if it is old hat, but it's certainly worth listening to again and again...and again... It almost brought me to tears because she is such an unspoilt child and not in the least proud of her talent.  What a sweet heart!  If you liked this (providing blogger cooperates), go over to You Tube and see and hear her singing with Sarah Brightman.

That's my J for today.  She's worth any others I might find..

CREATIVE BLOGGER AWARD

So I've been chosen for a CREATIVE BLOGGER AWARD by Morning AJ  but there are strings attached, so I don't know whether to be honored or not. But thank you AJ  --  I guess! :)  :)  Seriously, thank you for visiting me.  I enjoy your blog and your writing.
However, it has been bugging me all day trying to decide what to write, because the strings are:

1. To thank the one who awarded and link to that writer's blog.  No problem there.
2.  To choose five other bloggers to pass along this award.  That's difficult, because I know some people just don't want to get into it and I don't want to irritate them.
3.  Then worse than that I have to state six crazy things about myself of which only five are true and one is not -- or vice versa.

The truly crazy things about myself  I would just never divulge. In addition my husband says I am disgustingly honest. So do I embarrass myself, or force myself to go against my inherent nature and lie? So is this an award or torture? (Don't take me seriously AJ.  I'm honored when anyone even reads my blog.)

Well here goes:

1. We had the head of an important missionary society for dinner and I dropped the dessert, rhubarb pie and custard, all over his feet. 

2.  I once spoke formally at a meeting of more than 3,000 people.

3.  I have visited and at least stayed overnight in  more than ten different countries.  

4.  I love going to social functions and meeting a lot of new people.

5.  I sold one of my paintings for $70

6.  I can't swim.

7.  I was always known as an airhead... still am.

8.  I once put the butter in the oven instead of the 'fridge.

9.  I hate people singing happy birthday to me.

10. My wedding day was not the happiest day of my life.

11. My favorite animal is a dog.

12. I flew  more than a thousand miles by myself to stay the weekend with my favorite music group, The King's Singers.

13.  I played the part of Satan in a college theatrical.

14.  I broke my cat's leg when it was just a kitten.

I'm on a roll so I thought I'd give you more than your money's worth. The instructions still stand:  Either there is only one true statement above or only one lie.

Now for the recipients:

Kaybee because she's my younger sister and I have to bug her.

Incultus because he has a way with words.

Living as Rosa because I like her blog.

Sandy at Birds, Bees, Bugs and Blossoms because she has a creative mind.

Morning's Minion with whom I have much in common.

Now, all you recipients, be it known to you that if you  are at all averse to participation, please feel free to ignore this. (But I would really like to see what Incultus has to offer because he has a sharp mind and a good wit).

My Week's Art Work

The first one is the black and white cat from Wanda's Art Challenge. I did this one with Prisma Color pencils.

 The second one I took (with permission) from a very nice photograph Monsoon Dreams posted on her blog..It was of a group of ballerinas and I chose just one of the faces to reproduce.  Thank you Monsoon Dreams.

I did this one with water colors only.  It was quite a challenge.

Mix 'n Match

We had a visit from the hawk the other day. Actually a long visit. I was able to get 15 good shots of him through the den window.  I was sitting at the computer, when I looked up and there he was.  He was there for a good ten minutes and he knew I was there.  I think it was the juvenile from the other adult hawks  who have been visiting.  He has more white fluffy feathers around the tail area.  Anyway I had a hard time deciding which photos to post.  He was posing for me in a most obliging way as if to say "Well which is my good side?  You choose."  I was barely 10 feet away shooting through the window and he didn't seem to mind at all.

The birds we have visiting our yard is one of the delights of this house.  The kitchen and den sliding glass doors look out over the patio and the bird feeding area.  When it's time to feed the birds, they make a great racket around the feeder to remind me. As they are right now.

After feeding the birds:

THE VIRTUAL PAINTOUT:  This month the location chosen was Manhattan.  A challenge for me, since I do better at landscape painting, I think.  Anyway, here is my effort for this month.  I think the building in the background is the United Nations Building.  I didn't realize this until I was almost through.

A view from Manhattan
 For more paintings of Manhattan done by participants in The Virtual Paintout click on this link.

WEDNESDAY'S WORD ON THURSDAY
Jesus said, "Ye shall be witnesses to me...unto the uttermost parts of the earth. " Acts 1:8

Evangelicals take this command very seriously, as we should, but there are some things we should be prepared with before we excitedly go out witnessing.

First the disciples to whom Jesus said this were filled with the Holy Spirit.  That means Christ was in them, directing their words and their footsteps.  We turn people off if we brashly approach those whom God has not prepared to hear His message.
Next we need to be filled with the knowledge of God.  A Christian who has not been adequately taught in the faith and who does not have a good understanding of why Christ came, why He died and what His rising again means, is likely to be written off as over zealous or a bit eccentric if he doesn't really know what he is witnessing to.
In addition we should be mindful of the directive that comes from Peter, that we should be "ready to give an answer to everyone who asks you the reason for the hope that is within you."

"Witnessing" is an important part of our faith but it should be done with wisdom and grace and at the right moment. It should not be an "in your face " moment, but more at the moment of pressure from the Holy Spirit. A wise and knowledgeable Christian as he learns to know Christ, also learns to recognize those moments.

Almost missed it!

I is for....
Illuminated Lettering.
I almost missed ABC WEDNESDAY this week.  First I couldn't come up with a good IDEA.  Nothing really rang a bell and I had been thinking about it for several days.  I just didn't feel very INSPIRED.  Finally I decided I would go with ILLUMINATED Letters, but when I tried to find some INTERESTING facts about the subject, I couldn't find any INFORMATION that I thought everyone wouldn't already know.  In addition, the graphics I found  were INSIPID and commonplace.  Time was passing and still I didn't have a page to post. The things that really make ILLUSTRATED lettering  worthwhile is the fact that they are an INTERESTING historical art form and frankly, because gold, silver and copper were used to make the letters and the page outstanding.  Since none of those scan too well I thought this might make the topic anti-climatic.  Then I thought I 'd look at modern examples of this form of art work.  That INSPIRED me even less.  I'm such a traditionalist!  Since time was still passing fast, I finally decided I would do one myself and dispense with colors, so that it wouldn't look like a shoddy copy of an authentic art form.  
Then it happened!  My computer went down, giving me a legitimate excuse for being late in posting! So I was able to take my time in producing my  example of an illuminated letter 'I'. I did it in pen and black INK to preserve, I hope, an historically valid sense of authenticity.

Now here it is 24 hours later and I nearly missed the opportunity altogether because I have only just been able to get my computer up and running.  

So, better late than never!

I'm sure there are at least 100 posts for the letter 'I' on abcwednesdayround3.blogspot.com
So pop on over via this link and see what better brains than mine have been able to come up with.

Koran Burning? What would Jesus do?

WEDNESDAY'S WORDS ON THURSDAY
In the light of the obvious unrest and trouble brewing over the Florida pastor who is urging the burning of the Koran, here are some comments from Jesus and the apostles that have significance:

Be not overcome with evil but overcome evil with good.


"Vengeance is mine, I will repay," says the Lord.


Whoever will not receive you nor hear your words, when you depart from that house or city, shake the dust from off your feet.  Matt10:14
.
Those who live by the sword shall die by the sword.


Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the Sons of God. Matt. 5:9


Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.

There are many more quotes I could give, but I will simply emphasize that nowhere does Christ or the apostles advocate aggressive, disrespectful behavior towards those who do not believe as we do.

I am an evangelical and I believe the Bible.  I am as disturbed as many others are about the methods Islamic extremists use and advocate to spread their faith and seek vengeance on the rest of the world who do not believe a they do. Evangelicals  are often considered extremists because of some who behave obnoxiously. But 99.9% of evangelicals would condemn Rev. Terry Jones for his call to burn Korans. Yes there are some who might agree but then again there are those who believe Christianity is harmful (see the Humanist Manifesto) and I personally have been insulted and scorned and spitefully used for being a Christian. But God knows.  I leave it in His hands.
Ultimately, I believe as the scriptures teach, that God has all world events in His Hand and He will let this world and all evil in it, play itself out in His own good time.  It is eternity that will bring about justice in this world. The question is do I have the patience and grace to let Him do it?

Those who call Christians intolerant should beware that their anger against Christians for what they believe does not become intolerance in itself.  Tolerance is a new buzz word, but if everyone practiced tolerance no one would stand up for any limits in morals and values. As the saying goes, "If you don't stand for something, you will fall for anything."

******

10 minutes later 

Already there are those who would post comments on my blog comments which I in no way endorse.  I will remove them as soon as I (and blogger) can.  Please ignore them and don't give them the satisfaction of you  visiting their blog.

Flamblogger: H is for...

H is for HIGH SCHOOL....

BRIDLINGTON HIGH SCHOOL FOR GIRLS,  to be exact.

In spite of the fact that it was an all girls school, it was simply a regular high school.  That's the way it was done in those days, boys at one school, girls at another.  You can tell that I'm a dinosaur!  This was the days before comprehensive schools in England.  So did we grow up with complexes about boys?  Did we feel deprived? Believe me we did not!  There was plenty of association between the boys' school and the girls' school.  After school and weekends we had many opportunities of which to take advantage.  In fact, on SPORTS DAY the boys visited the girls' school in flocks because we girls did sports in our uniform underwear knickers -- green ones.!!  Too bad I don't have any photos of that!

BRIDLINGTON HIGH SCHOOL FOR GIRLS

It was a beautiful old building, especially this wing you see here.  We had a great gymnasium, the beautiful Bickersteth Library, and a large hall with a choir loft, organ and balcony.  It was known as the White Hall for obvious reasons.  There was a large playing field area on which we played field hockey, lacrosse, cricket, rounders, and net ball.  Around the field were four or five grass tennis courts in addition to three or four hard courts. Sadly today it has been made into flats.

I loved my days at school.  We had all the normal, good, clean fun that kids had in that day.  "School days are the happiest days of your life" it has been said and for me it was just about true ("just about" because I've had a lot of happy days since) in spite of the hated lisle stockings and beret style hat that we HAD to wear to and from school.  Trouble for you if you were caught by a prefect without your hat on!

The prefects of the sixth form and sixth senior with the headmistress (r) Miss Muir, and my all time favorite teacher, Miss Eaton. 

I'm not on this photo, I must have been absent that day.  But I am still in active touch with three of the girls  shown above.  And don't we look sharp in our hunter green skirts (everyone else had to wear gymslips), crisp, white vyella blouses and ties striped horizontally in black, white and green. and anchored with our proudly worn prefect badges.  You should have seen our blazers  -- striped vertically in black white and green.  We looked like zebras.  But we were so proud of them.

I am thankful daily  for the really good education I received there. I was not an outstanding student.  Somehow it didn't dawn on me that we were actually supposed to learn what we were taught -- that is until my father said that if I wanted to stay at school after age 16 and attend college, I had to pass my GCE exams.  I had never studied so hard as I did for those exams, as opposed to not studying at all for prior exams.  I took seven subjects and passed all seven. I was really motivated. Thankfully I did well and the rest, as they say, is history.

SO 'H' IS FOR HAPPY HIGH SCHOOL DAYS!

More Artwork

I just don't seem to be getting out and about to take photographs lately, so my artwork is done in the evenings and I will have to make a point of going somewhere for photographs.  In the mean time:

Here is my entry for Wanda's Challenge, a ring and gorgeous blue stones (Sapphires?)

Then there is this one based on a photo I took months ago.  I finally got around to doing it.  It is someone who shall be nameless, at the Leo Carillo Ranch.

We have more cold weather on the way and September is usually our hottest month.   This is a record breaking cool summer, thanks as I understand it, to La Nina.  (Pacific waters too cold.)

A Plate of Figs and Kitten News.

This is my effort for Wanda's Art Challenge -- A Plate of Figs,(done in Prisma colors and a little pen and ink). Visit Wanda's art gallery for other renderings via the link above.

I've never really had much to do with figs because as a child my first associations with them and incidentally, California, were not too pleasant!  Brits who are reading this may share my associations.  If we children were cranky and bad tempered, out would come the bottle of California Syrup of Figs, which was supposed to put us to rights again.  It is a strong laxative and all I remember were the miserable stomach cramps that went with it! So I have never eaten a fig since.

The kitten news is good.  A friend of mine from church told me they were looking for a complete grey tabby. So I said I would look out for one at the shelter and give them a call if one came in .  They wanted it to be two to three months old.  Well to make a long story short, I saw one had come in on Thursday.  They came down and looked at it, but it had a hold on it which meant that someone else had first dibs.  But if they didn't show up by Saturday noon, then my friends had the next opportunity.  They came down and looked at it and decided that it was just what they wanted.  So this afternoon I got an excited call to say that they got the kitten!  People put holds on several kittens at a time and then later after making up their mind they forget to take the 'hold' off their other choices.  Any way I am very excited to know that I had a part in placing a kitten.  It's not part of my job description and I only get to interact with people through the windows.  But I do get to do all the cuddling.

   We have some beautiful fully grown cats at the moment.  They are all so healthy looking and affectionate too.  Some of these need a home so badly.  They love every moment that I give them and it's hard to tear myself away from them and move on to another cat.  I just tell myself, well, I've just given that cat 20 minutes of happiness that he wouldn't have had if I weren't there.

  Sterling and Donavan are actually thriving without the other cats.  I do believe they are eating more because they don't have to compete.  Sterling is actually putting on some weight.  He was really too thin before.

My Cooper's Hawk Painting

I wasn't going to post this as I really wasn't satisfied with him but I'd promised Wanda at Wanda's Art Challenge that I would paint him and send him over to her.  But Crusty Crone left a comment on Wanda's blog about my hawk, which Wanda posted. So I silenced my self critical complaints and here he is:

So shall I tell you why I wasn't satisfied with him or let you figure it out for yourself?

Oh well. here goes:

1.  His head isn't wide enough in proportion to the rest of him

2.  The wing is too wide and doesn't look as if it is sitting flat against him.

3.  The tail is too wide in proportion to the rest of him.

I do like his head, his eye and the spots on his breast, but I'm so picky! I am rarely satisfied with what I paint. I have thoughts of trying to correct him this weekend, but this is water color and I may just ruin him.  It's either that or doing him over and I hate doing things over.  Also, I have Wanda's plate of figs waiting to be done and some other still life pieces Sandy has contributed.

Thank you Crusty Crone for the encouragement.  I wouldn't have posted him if you hadn't said something.

Then too, I must visit the shelter tomorrow and Saturday.  Poor Sterling is all alone and was so pleased to see me today.  I promised to go back again tomorrow.  All his room mates have been adopted!  And he looks at me with those big yellow eyes as I get ready to leave the room, that seem to say "Are you going to leave me here all alone? Take me with you, p..l..e..a..s..e..."

Tomorrow I will beg the powers that be to put another friend in there for him.

 P.S.   For cat lovers everywhere... please visit my sister's blog 

A Patchwork Quilt Made by Design (Click on this)

You won't be disappointed  it's hilarious!

Wednesday's Words on Thursday.

WEDNESDAY'S WORDS ON THURSDAY.

 

"LET NOT YOUR HEART BE TROUBLED, YOU BELIEVE IN GOD, 

BELIEVE ALSO IN ME." John 14:1

Jesus is saying that it's not so hard to believe in God, so why is it so difficult to believe that He is God.?  There is nothing to be afraid of when we believe in Him.  He is God. We know God loves us and wants the best for us.  Jesus, because He is God wants the same for us.

John's Gospel is full of evens and comments showing clearly that Jesus is God.  One of John's last comments about his own writing of the Gospel of John shows clearly where he stands.  He says,

"These things are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ (Messiah), the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His Name." John 20: 31.