RALLY

   This Saturday was a special day at the church. We have taken part in the Spring Creek Holiness Campmeeting for many years, and the camp has a rally day each quarter at a host mission across the South Dakota reservations. This quarter was our turn, and we were excited to host it. People who are interested in meeting together for good spiritual and physical food come from all over the state, and spend most of the day. A young man shared his testimony of God's grace with us, and he gave us a thought-provoking message in the afternoon concerning 'forgiveness of others.' Some drive for several hours to come for the few hours we are together. We had the church ready, and a fall theme decorated in the basement for the potluck dinner two weeks ago when the 'big snowstorm' hit western South Dakota; so it was still ready this weekend. Our anticipation was rewarded, and we enjoyed the time as completely as we knew we would.

   Ray and I spent the night in the church so that we could be there again this morning for service. Some of the sweet children who live there were knocking on the church door at 11:45 PM, asking if we were having Sunday School. :) Around 1:30, some gentlemen were having a conversation under the church window where we were asleep. :) In spite of all of that, I slept quite well, though Ray was a little 'dragged out' from checking things out. He had a good chance for a nap later today when we arrived home.
   I am liking the EN 101 and 102 classes that I am teaching at the local college, and I have become acquainted with many kind and good people. I always enjoy teaching English, research, and writing, and these classes are no exception. I feel that I have very special students this semester, as they are determined, caring, and capable people. I drive back to teach on Tuesday afternoons; and I begin EN 101 at 4:00 PM, and finish EN 102 at 10:00 PM. I always find new friends in these classes.
   We thank the Lord for His protection in the many miles we travel on the highways. Please pray for these beautiful people whom God has given us to love.

HARVESTING SMALL THINGS

    Gardening is a hobby that I have enjoyed from my early married years. I found it relaxing and exhilarating at the same time as I worked outside and challenged the odds for a crop. When I had three small children, I dug a spot up with a round point shovel every year after the initial plowing of the ground. The ground mostly produced moss, and it didn't look very promising; but since I love gardening, challenges, and growing things, we had a very productive garden in that spot in a couple of years. When we first moved to South Dakota, I was told that it was impossible to grow a garden there. The water would kill it, and the soil was useless. I started by digging up a couple of spots with a round point shovel and building up the ground. We grew some pretty decent plants. Our neighbor looked over the fence and felt sorry for me and brought his tractor and plowed and disked and fertilized a large plot of land for me to plant. I was happy, and we had a nice big garden. Here in Mitchell, our back yard was littered with old shingles, oil from old cars, piles of old plaster and drywall, and other undistinguishable things when we moved in. We cut the tangles of underbrush and weeds and I bought a brand-new round point shovel. It took a few extra years, but we have finally built a very productive spot for veggies. We have also planted strawberries, a couple of blueberry bushes, an apple tree, and some raspberries. We are in the height of tomato harvest, and we love picking them and popping them into our mouths and tasting the flavor oozing onto our tongue. Yummm!! We are also enjoying carrots, beets, green peppers, spaghetti squash, and cucumbers. These are special enjoyments to us; and I am convinced that the labor that brought these things to us is worth what I have expended.

     Maybe the same reason that I take challenges in gardening is the driving force that helps us to keep working at the mission. I have not been holding Sunday School for a few Sundays, though I plan to pick it up again. We sometimes join the struggle that all humankind finds facing them. Daily pressures, deadlines,  physical limitations, and lack of time all come into play in our lives. Hopefully, we can again pick up the Sunday School aspect at the mission next month. I am finding some things are falling back into place.

     We were pleasantly surprised when Rev. Norman Cash called us to ask if the Spring Creek Camp could come to the mission for their quarterly rally. We are happy to welcome  the camp there. On Saturday, October 5, we will begin the morning with a service, and we will have a fun potluck together over the lunch hour. We will come together again in the afternoon for another time of worship. We always look forward to these times, and we always leave the rallies happy and encouraged.
       We pray for a good week for you, and we ask for your prayers as we go to the reservation. Thank you for your interest.

~~SUMMER SHADOWS~~

...the flowers appear on the earth... ~~Song of Solomon 2:12

   In the last two weeks or so, I have heard it multiple times: "...summer is over..."  I beg to differ. It is ninety-five degrees today, and the forecast has published digits hovering in the nineties for the next week. Flowers are blooming flamboyantly, and the birds are singing until their little throats seem like they will burst. It is summer at its best! I was outside this afternoon watering and gathering some flowers, and I could hear the turtledove's mourning cry as I worked.

...the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land...

      We have been gathering crops as they begin to ripen and bear their fruits, and I can see the promise of more fruit in the days to come.

 

...The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell...

~~Song of Solomon 2:12, 13~~

   On a little more personal note, the following verse is appropriate in Ray's and my life, also, as we just celebrated another anniversary of our lives together.  

 ...My Beloved is mine, and I am his...



   In spite of my denial of summer's passing, I notice that the sun sets a little sooner, the shadows are a little longer, the sunsets are a little more golden; and I know that fall is approaching. Life goes on--we do our normal routines in the days, Esther flies back to Florida to enter another year of college, Ray hurries a little to finish projects on the house, I begin to teach some adult night classes. Summer will be over, though it is not yet. :)

 ...until the day break, and the shadows flee away...be thou like a roe or a young hart upon the mountain...

~~Song of Solomon 2:17~~
May God bless you this week, my Friend!! Please pray for us as we pray for you. 



 

  

 

' ...LIKE A TREE...'

"And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringing forth his fruit in his season..."

                                                                                                                                

 ~Psalm 1: 3~

     I have a fascination for trees-matter of fact, I love trees. I was raised in the northern part of Michigan, which is known as the 'northwoods,' and trees were very much a part of my life when I was growing up. Fifty miles of forest stretched behind our house to Lake Michigan, and my parents' property had been carved out of that woods many years before we arrived. When we first moved to South Dakota, I wondered how I could ever be happy in this 'barren' land. I began to plant trees-apple trees and a peach tree, a cherry tree and six green ash trees. I watered them and talked to them and coaxed them, and they thrived.

I enjoy a walk down a shady path

  When we moved into our home here in Mitchell, I was so happy to see the many trees planted around the house. I am sure that most people feel that our little piece of property is a serious piece of 'overkill' when it come to trees, but they make me very happy.

Dead, but still bringing nurture to the hummingbirds and butterflies

One of my friends saw a 'piece of Chinese silk' in the graceful curves of these limbs

    Our goal in our lives is to be 'fruitful' and to become as trees that will shelter and nurture others, both in Lower Brule and in Mitchell. I sometimes take a step back and assess our current activities, and I measure our depth of perspective in relation to others. We are here on earth to protect, to comfort, to encourage, and to bear the fruits of righteousness in our daily lives.

Fruit

 I love the passage in Revelation which describes the Tree of Life:

"In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations."

                                                                                                                       

   ~Revelation 22:2~

AND NOW...RAY!! :)

   It is easy to overlook the people who are the most steady and dependable, and who are the 'glue' that holds everything together. Ray is one of those people. He has a sermon ready for us on Sunday mornings, and he gets something new each time. He is happy to talk and listen to the gentlemen who come on Sunday mornings after church.

   When it is time for Sunday School, he is the person who keeps me balanced and encouraged. Ray has never been a critical husband in any way, and he is so kind and supportive at Lower Brule when I am sometimes critical of myself.   I find it hard to accompany the children in the bus to and from Sunday School, and he is willing to pick them up and take them by himself. He keeps cool, calm, and collected in that unstructured time. He also keeps the bus running smoothly without a complaint.

      I am happy to have Sunday School in a structured way after everyone gets to church. :)  His calmness is soothing to me. I am thankful to have him as a life companion, and to have him as my 'team member'  in our efforts at the mission.

    Ray had an eye surgery this past week, and I am happy that it was successful. He has been a wonderful patient, and he has not complained at all.
   I am working on getting a syllabus and a power point put together for EN 101 and 102 that will be starting soon at the Lower Brule College. I am looking forward to teaching those classes again this year.  Thank you for reading this blog post, and I pray that you have a wonderful week. May God Bless you!



  
  

DIVERSITY

   God loves diversity. One look at His creation will attest to that fact. There are so many differences in the world that he made, as well as the creatures that live in it. We were the witness of diversity in harmony this past week, and we thoroughly enjoyed it.
   Esther, her friend Ellen, and I drove over to the Spring Creek Camp in the sandhills of southwestern South Dakota to help with the children at a family camp there. We held a session with the children in the morning, and another with them in the afternoon. Esther and Ellen used a detective theme, and they 'solved the mysteries' of the prophecies of the prophets Hosea and Isaiah as they 'studied' the stories of Jesus in the New Testament. We had an enthusiastic group of kids who sang and played wholeheartedly. It was a special and fun--filled time for us.
   Back to the diversity, though...allow me to illustrate:


The world changes when we drive through the gate into Spring Creek Camp

Several species of flowers bloom-here are some wild roses

Differences in fence posts  :)

Diversity in heritage

Differences in personality and in activities

Sitting on a gate is fun

Some like to play

Some like to watch

This little lady was created uniquely by God, and she is giving herself to God. I found it very touching. She responded so wholeheartedly to attention and love. :)

I pray God's greatest blessings on you this week!!










     

WHERE'S GOD??...SO GLAD YOU ASKED!!

   She was looking intently at the picture board that I had created while I told the story, and I could tell her little mind was trying to process something. Finally, she couldn't wait to ask and burst out, "But where is God?"  It took me a couple of seconds to understand the question, and then I remembered that I had been telling stories of Jesus for weeks; and a picture of Jesus would inevitably appear on the board. The last couple Sundays, however, I have been telling the story of David the little shepherd boy and how he was raised by God to be the King of His Own Chosen People. No pictures of Jesus appeared in this story. At this juncture, I was telling about how King Saul had asked for David to come into his court to stay and to become his personal musician to calm him when the 'evil spirit' came upon him. In an earlier lesson, I had told the children how God moved on the heart of the judge Samuel to anoint David to be the next king, and now he was given the unpleasant job of calming a wild and dangerous king by playing his harp. To express it the way one of the girls recapped it this Sunday: "David played his harp when the king got really mad and went 'waaaa!!!!!....' "(arms flailing everywhere and head shaking violently until her hair stood up). Well, where was God?  I stopped and pointed to the top of the board where the sky ends, and said, "God was there. He was up in heaven, and He was watching what was happening to David. He was training David to be a good king. David was watching Saul while he was doing his business, and David was trained to be a king in his time as a musician."   I'm so glad she asked...I never thought of it that way before. It also gave me a chance to tell them (and myself) that God is always up in heaven watching what is happening to us, and He is planning for us a good future. Just for the record, I don't always see this; and I'm sure David did not always understand this when the situation became tense, but that does not change the truth of this fact. Ahh, the blessings of active little minds!

   We are thankful for the Lord's protection on some of our church family who had come to Mitchell for business last week and had a frightening accident that landed them in the hospital. We were glad to be with them, and to help them when they needed help. Happily, we were able to take them home a few days later, though they were bruised and sore. God is good--all the time!!

    My prayer for you is that you would have a wonderful week, and that you would see God in all things that come your way. God bless you!