No Pain-No Gain

My Mother-in-law(love) sent this to me via her blog. It ministered to me and I hope it does you as well.

"NAOMI WAS LEFT WITHOUT HER TWO SONS AND HER HUSBAND." RUTH 1:5 NIV
You gain through your pain
When their husbands died, Naomi, Ruth, and Orpah experienced a unique bonding process. Unless you've been through it, it's hard to understand. It's a fellowship not born of age, race, background or status, and it brings together the oddest people. When you're hurting, don't look for understanding and support from those who haven't walked in your shoes. People can't give you what they don't have. Often the best they have to offer is the kind of advice that's glib, and quickly becomes annoying. Furthermore, until you start to make sense of your pain and see the greater good in it, you can feel like a victim. but once you see God's grace at work, and His hand in it all, you can begin to move ahead to marry, to have another baby, to get another job, to dream another dream, to live again.
Charles Spurgeon wrote, "Just as old soldiers compare stories and scars, when we arrive at our heavenly home we'll tell of the faithfulness of God. Who brought us through. I wouldn't like to be pointed out as the only one who never experienced sorrow, or feel like a stranger in the midst of that sacred fellowship. Therefore be content to share in the battle, for soon we will wear the crown."
When life suddenly changes and you're fighting just to get through another day, remind yourself that Satan hasn't snatched the steering wheel from God. No, God is aware of what you're going through and He still has a plan for your life. Be encouraged. You gain through your pain. Victory is born out of struggle. Hold on to His hand; He will bring you through this!Bob Gass (A WORD FOR TODAY)

His Permanent Address Book

Yesterday I was updating my address book for Christmas mailouts. I always write in it in pencil. As I was going through the names, I got disturbed by how many names I was erasing from it due to deaths. I suddenly felt sad and melancholy. Then, eventually just started crying due to how many I had to erase, missing each one and feeling somewhat lonely without them. I could still see a vague shadow of their names where I had just erased. (certain erasers don't erase all that well) Instantly, I felt the Lord comforting me by His still small voice. Just as I have not forgotten my deceased loved ones, neither will He forget me. Although, they are not with me in the flesh, they are with me in spirit. Just as Jesus is not with me in the flesh, He is with me in Spirit. He reminded me that He too has an address book....The Lamb's Book of Life. And, once He inscribes a name into His address book, it can NEVER be erased. Everyone in His book has the same address as He does. As I erased the last name, I saw a vision of Jesus dipping His finger into His own blood and scribing that same name in His book. O Death where is thy sting? None. Just a relocation and a name in a permanent address book. I pray you are in His permanent address book.

Arrow Homeschool Cross Country Meet 10-25-2008

In high school and college I ran cross country and track. I never dreamed my kids would want to do the same. As long as they love it we encourage them on. Shane gets to be their coach which he loves doing. It is something we get to do as a family and makes for good exercise. It also helps them understand somewhat of what Hebrews 12:1-3 means...

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

Getting ready for the race.
Pinning on race numbers.

Brothers ready to run.

Garrison, smallest of all the runners.

4 yr. old Garrison at the finish.

half mile: 4min. 27s.

Chase running the mile

Chase finishes 1st

Time: 5 min. 49s

Amara running the mile.

Amara finishes 1st

Time: 6min. 48s

Grant finishes 1st in the half mile race.

Time: 3 min. 22 s

Justice finishes 2nd in the half mile.

Time: 3 min. 36 s

Caroline Bishop (in blue shirt) running the 2 mile.
Caroline got 3rd

Rachel Bishop running the half mile.
Rachel got 3rd

The Bishop girls go to our church.

After the meet they had an autumn festival with several bluegrass bands. This is the Barnyard Boys.

The Stamatis runners showing off their medals.

The Stamatis and Bishop medalists. What a great day.

The Pigs Have Come Home To Roost ;)

photo by free-stock-photos.com

My brother shared this with me recently and I thought it was hilarious. I just had to share it with you.

This guy really sent this letter to the following...

The Rt Hon David Miliband MPSecretary of State,Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA),Nobel House17 Smith SquareLondon SW1P 3JR

16 May 2007

Dear Secretary of State,
My friend, who is in farming at the moment, recently received a cheque for GBP3,000 from the Rural Payments Agency for not rearing pigs.
I would now like to join the “not rearing pigs” business. In your opinion, what is the best kind of farm not to rear pigs on and which is the best breed of pigs not to rear? I want to be sure I approach this endeavour in keeping with all government policies, as dictated by the EU under the Common Agricultural Policy.
I would prefer not to rear bacon pigs, but if this is not the type you want not rearing, I will just as gladly not rear porkers. Are there any advantages in not rearing rare breeds such as Saddlebacks or Gloucester Old Spots, or are there too many people already not rearing these? As I see it, the hardest part of this programme will be keeping an accurate record of how many pigs I haven’t reared. Are there any Government or Local Authority courses on this?
My friend is very satisfied with this business. He has been rearing pigs for forty years or so, and the best he ever made on them was GBP1,422 in 1968. That is - until this year, when he received a cheque for not rearing any. If I get GBP3,000 for not rearing 50 pigs, will I get GBP6,000 for not rearing 100? I plan to operate on a small scale at first, holding myself down to about 4,000 pigs not raised, which will mean about GBP240,000 for the first year. As I become more expert in not rearing pigs, I plan to be more ambitious, perhaps increasing to, say, 40,000 pigs not reared in my second year, for which I should expect about GBP2.4 million from your department.
Incidentally, I wonder if I would be eligible to receive tradable carbon credits for all these pigs not producing harmful and polluting methane gases? Another point: These pigs that I plan not to rear will not eat 2,000 tonnes of cereals. I understand that you also pay farmers for not growing crops. Will I qualify for payments for not growing cereals to not feed the pigs I don’t rear?
I am also considering the “not milking cows” business, so please send any information you have on that too. Please could you also include the current DEFRA advice on set aside fields? Can this be done on an e-commerce basis with virtual fields (of which I seem to have several thousand hectares)?
In view of the above, you will realise that I will be totally unemployed, and will therefore qualify for unemployment benefits. I shall of course be voting for your party at the next general election.

Yours faithfully,
Nigel Johnson-Hill

Tough Love from a Preacher's heart

God Tube is the "Christian" version of You Tube. This is my favorite video out there.
Warning: This is shockingly powerful, intense, passionate and unapologetic! It is only because I love you and want to be with you in heaven that I share this. So buckle up, hold on to your seat and click here to view....

http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=19fd9c84c942a08316e0

Brothers are for keeping..So are sisters-in-law!!

My brother Cory and his wife Kristin.
Cory took this picture. Absolutely beautiful.

Sacrifice

I love our troops. I also love these pics of them that are out there circling the web. I just wanted to share them with you.

I just had to throw this one in for fun.

Company Cruise 7/2008

Every year Shane's company takes a company cruise to entertain agents. This year we went to Key West, Cozumel and Belize. I uploaded these pictures backwards somehow from the end of our trip ending with the beginning. Go figure. I'll have to figure out how to arrange my pics in correct chronological order :).

Agent Chris with wife Maureen in our Limo on the way to airport. Post cruise. We were suppose to take a cab to the airport but we were running late to make our flight so we "stole" Ron's limo. (Ron's the president of the company) Ron had to take the cab. Life's tough, hee,hee.

Our agent friends Jay and Christine. They made cruisin' fun.

Agent friends Chris and Maureen on right of table. They made cruisin' even more fun!

"Nights" at the round table. Matt with wife Mikalyn, son Sam and daughter Anna. I'm in the foreground with upty hairdo. Matt is Shane's boss. He and his family are very dear to us! We just love 'em!!

BIG ship.

Republicans all the way baby. I still love my demo friends though. Ok. Here is our school lesson for the day. Ever wonder how the parties got their mascots?

Answer
This symbol of the party was born in the imagination of cartoonist Thomas Nast and first appeared in Harper's Weekly on November 7, 1874.
An 1860 issue of Railsplitter and an 1872 cartoon in Harper's Weekly connected elephants with Republicans, but it was Nast who provided the party with its symbol.
Oddly, two unconnected events led to the birth of the Republican Elephant. James Gordon Bennett's New York Herald raised the cry of "Caesarism" in connection with the possibility of a thirdterm try for President Ulysses S. Grant. The issue was taken up by the Democratic politicians in 1874, halfway through Grant's second term and just before the midterm elections, and helped disaffect Republican voters.
While the illustrated journals were depicting Grant wearing a crown, the Herald involved itself in another circulation-builder in an entirely different, nonpolitical area. This was the Central Park Menagerie Scare of 1874, a delightful hoax perpetrated by the Herald. They ran a story, totally untrue, that the animals in the zoo had broken loose and were roaming the wilds of New York's Central Park in search of prey.
Cartoonist Thomas Nast took the two examples of the Herald enterprise and put them together in a cartoon for Harper's Weekly. He showed an ass (symbolizing the Herald) wearing a lion's skin (the scary prospect of Caesarism) frightening away the animals in the forest (Central Park). The caption quoted a familiar fable: "An ass having put on a lion's skin roamed about in the forest and amused himself by frightening all the foolish animals he met within his wanderings."
One of the foolish animals in the cartoon was an elephant, representing the Republican vote - not the party, the Republican vote - which was being frightened away from its normal ties by the phony scare of Caesarism. In a subsequent cartoon on November 21, 1874, after the election in which the Republicans did badly, Nast followed up the idea by showing the elephant in a trap, illustrating the way the Republican vote had been decoyed from its normal allegiance. Other cartoonists picked up the symbol, and the elephant soon ceased to be the vote and became the party itself: the jackass, now referred to as the donkey, made a natural transition from representing the Herald to representing the Democratic party that had frightened the elephant.
--From William Safire's New Language of Politics, Revised edition, Collier Books, New York, 1972

Me and my husband Shane.

My other husband Shane. LOL. Agent friend Chris.

Leaving Key West.

Talking on the phone to my brother in the Key Lime store in Key West.

Me and Wyatt Earp in Key West.

The day before we set sail we had a company dinner at the Antique Car Museum in Fort Lauderdale.

Just for you Mark Williams!!

Me with the owners of the museum. If you are ever in Ft. Lauderdale you have to visit this museum. If anything else just to support them. They are an adorable couple.

Visit to Florida 7/2008

In July of this year Amara and I flew to Florida to see Cory and Kristin's new baby girl and Michelle's new baby boy. We were there 10 days and had a restful time. We probably spent half that time sleeping. :)

Kristin at beach with baby Mya.

Amara and Brock (Cory's oldest son).

Cousins havin' fun.

My sweet cousin Lisa holding Mya.

Michelle's daughter Sarah with Amara.

I love this magestic oak tree. I use to play under it as a little girl. I had my 6th birthday party under it. It holds special memories. I just had to take a picture of it while we were in Parrish.

Amara with Nana.

My best friend from high school, Michelle, with her daughter Sarah and new baby boy Nicolas.

Cory and Kristin's new baby girl, Mya. Isn't she precious!

Amara with cousins Brock and Daniel making Tamales. Uncle Cory said that in Mexico Tamale making is a family affair. So we made it a family affair too. It was fun and they tasted great!

Amara, now the expert tamale maker.

OK. Here are the three muppeteers. These three hams were all born within a couple months of each other in 1996. Brock, Haley, and Amara. (Haley is Kristin's sister's daughter.) Here they are for their 12 year old reunion :).