What a shock to learn that my sweet, soft-spoken friend had been a guard at a women’s prison. The job was rough, the demands stringent, and the circumstances often mirrored a nightmare. But armed with her gun, a sense of security must have eased her tension.
Her instructions were to shoot, no reservations, no hesitation…just fire should she see any inmate display even a slight attempt to escape.
She learned how. She was trained. She had practiced. But when the time came to do it…she froze. That’s when reality struck; she lacked the guts to pull that trigger. Her days as a prison guard came to an end.
And now, as a Christian, she teaches another self-defense method. She carries in her heart a better, more powerful weapon to guard against all evil—physical or spiritual. She holds on to Christ, and clings to His power great enough to stop the thieves who threaten to rob the peace and security.
And we can too, here are three steps to protect ourselves:
This touched a tender part of my heart today~Onisha
Treasure Beach, Jamaica, is an earthly paradise, but in this beautiful place you can also find extreme examples of land and seascape: warm inviting water, threatening jagged reef. Like the photograph, life is so often a portrait in extremes. In the hours of one day it is possible to experience the sweetest, uplifting highs, only to find yourself cut to bits by unexpected, devastating lows. We’ve all experienced these contradictory days. Yet, through it all one fact holds true, the Word of God stands eternal. Whatever I am going through in my life, whatever injurious circumstance I, or someone I love, might be experiencing; the Word of God is a lifeline if I reach out and open the book.
Three Christmas celebrations and one birthday just about left me partied out. I did have enjoy making some new snacks and eating them, of course. Then, just as I thought my party schedule was blank, we decided to attend a post-Christmas family party in eastern North Carolina. ( We had barely arrived in Florida from our home in western North Carolina)
Christmas in Florida was depressingly warm at eighty-six degrees, and I do dislike heat, so I am sure the chance to escape to some cooler temps factored in our decision.
We had dinner at one of the local restaurants then headed to our uncles house for some serious gabbing. We are a talking bunch of people when we get together. My mother was one of twelve children. That means I have a lot of cousins.
When my mom and most of her other siblings were alive, they congregated around a kitchen table teasing and laughing while my generation spread out, chasing our children or catching up with everyone. This past Fall, I noticed that it was my generation now hanging out at the table. We have ascended a step on the ladder of life.
As a rule we don’t designate first cousin, second cousin etc. We are cousins…period, but for picture purposes, we tried to separate the cousins into first, second etc. The picture is of second cousins, although there is a first cousin in there, but she fits in better with the “youngsters.” (There are a LOT more cousins, but they were not able to attend)
I am so proud of each one of these cousins and love them dearly. One day they will be the ones sitting at the table while their children race around keeping up with the kids. When the time comes for my generation to ascend the final step of life’s ladder, I know the family will be in good hands.
This is one of the songs my mom and dad loved to sing. Many of the artists in this video are gone now.
Unknown to most Americans; when Neal Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stepped on the moon in July of 1969, the “Space Race” was essentially over. The U.S. continued to send men to the moon until 1972, but the Apollo manned lunar landing program was spinning down all the while.
By the time the Apollo 11 astronauts returned to earth, construction of most of the hardware for the rest to that program had already been started, completed or cancelled. Layoffs of hundreds of thousands of contractor personnel across the country began, and those layoffs included thousands of contractor personnel at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) where I worked. In one respect, I was fortunate to be in one of the final waves of contractor personnel laid off after the launch of the Skylab and its 3 astronaut replacement missions.
In 1973 Rockwell International (RI) gave me the opportunity to return to the North American Aviation (NAA) plant in California (my point of origin) or be laid off. I had no prospects of a job at the home plant, and the cost of living there was twice what it was here in Florida. We would have to virtually give our house away as the bottom had dropped out of the housing market, and we didn’t have the money for a down payment of any kind on a house there. On top of all that, DiVoran had let me know, in no uncertain terms, that she hated Los Angeles (we had spent 8 years there while I was going to college) and if I took the transfer back to the home plant, I would be making the trip alone!
The problem with taking the lay-off was that by 1973 so many people had been laid off from the KSC that literally all the jobs in the central Florida area had been taken. A person couldn’t even get a job pumping gas at the local gas station, and Wal-Mart wasn’t here yet. I flooded the area with resumes to no avail. Sometime after my 16 weeks (as I remember) of unemployment benefits ran out, a friend who was a building contractor, helped me get a job with his rough carpenter as a laborer at minimum wage. This was a miracle job, because by then our family was trying to survive on food stamps, and any job was a gift from God. That was a really hard job for this ex-engineer who had spent the last 8 years mostly writing hardware installation procedures for the space program and overseeing their implementation (essentially a desk job).
Then one day at church a friend, who was an electrician and owned his own small electrical business, offered me a job working for him as an “Apprentice’s Helper.” This was another minimum wage job, but at least it had the potential of higher wages if and when the company won a government related contract. I spent the next two years following George around trying to learn the electrical trade. This actually consisted of being his go-fer, digging a lot of ditches and building a lot of shelves in his warehouse/office to support his expanding business inventory.
In 1975 George’s business had dropped off to the point that he had to lay me off. My contractor friend had suggested that with my mechanical engineering degree, and letters of recommendation confirming my two years’ experience in the construction field (even though it was at menial jobs) from the companies I had worked for, he thought I would qualify to apply for my General Contractors License. I studied, took the required classes and applied to take the state Contractors test. While I waited for the test to be given in my area, our family took the opportunity to take a camping trip to visit friends and relatives (see “Our Trip Across America” blog-10/10/2012). It was just about this time that one of my resumes found its way to the Lockheed Missiles & Space Co. (LMSC) and they hired me to work on their Trident I submarine missile flat pad development program. What a marvelous answer to prayer that was.
As the word spread, and Ray’s air conditioning business increased, it wasn’t long before he had to start hiring help to keep up with all the work. At one point he had 5 trucks and 5 people working for him. Things were going really well for Ray, and as a matter of fact, during one year, Ray says he made more money with his sideline air conditioning business than he did working full-time for Leaver Bros.
One of Ray’s employees approached him one day and mentioned that the owner of the Friggitt Lounge had an air condition system that needed repair and wanted to know if Ray was interested in the job. When Ray inspected the A/C unit, he discovered that it had (what appeared to be a bullet hole) in it. He took the job and repaired the unit, after which he and the owner, Joe, became good friends. Things were going well with the Friggitt Lounge and sometime about 1970 Joe asked Ray if he would like to be a partner in the lounge. Ray knew a good deal when he saw one, and bought 1/2 interest in the lounge. Business just got better and better.
Then one day (sometime later) out of the clear blue sky, the local Mafia paid the bartender a visit. They informed him, that from then on their protection fee would be $1200 each week. When the bar tender told Joe and Ray about the Mafia visit, Joe said he wasn’t going to bow down to that kind of extortion, and that they could kiss his behind before he paid them one red cent. Ray tried to tell Joe that these were bad people and that he shouldn’t try to fight them, but Joe wouldn’t listen. Ray finally told him that he didn’t want to get involved with those people and wanted Joe to buy back his share of the business. Joe agreed to honor Ray’s request and just that quick Ray was out of the lounge business.
Ray continued to work at Leaver Bros. and his sideline A/C business. According to him, it wasn’t 3 months later that the Friggitt Lounge became one of many businesses in the area that burned to the ground. That fire made Ray wonder if that original bullet hole in the Friggett Lounge A/C unit might have been the first warning that his friend Joe had received from the Mafia about his refusal to pay their weekly protection fees.
After about 3 years, one of Ray’s original A/C customers, seeing how prosperous Ray’s Air Conditioning business was, approached Ray, telling him how he had always wanted to own a business of his own. He asked Ray if he would be interested in selling his business. After some consideration, Ray quoted him a price and the man agreed to Ray’s terms, and the deal was done. (Keep in mind Ray has been doing all this while working full-time with Leaver Bros.)
Some people have the most interesting life stories. Ray is one of those people, and I consider it a privileged to have him as a friend. If you have liked this story, stay tuned for more interesting blog stories to come, in the near future, about
I haven’t written a blog since Thanksgiving. Thankfully, I am blessed with amazing and faithful friends who have a blog ready every week. They even “blog ahead” when they are on vacation or know they have a busy time coming up. Divoran, Bill, Louise, Janet and Judy, I appreciate and admire you more than you can imagine. You are invisible gifts underneath my Christmas tree.
Yesterday, tornados slashed a path of destruction across the Southeast, leaving homes in ruin and lives were lost. I am adding safety and protection as an invisible gift under the tree.
At Christmas people say “it is not the gift, it is the thought behind it” or “It’s not the presents under the tree but the people around it.” For me it is the invisible gifts that last far longer than the newest tech gadget (although I love new tech) or a piece of shiny jewelry, that stays with me. I treasure growing up in a family that loved the Savior. My parents are a precious invisible gift.I could ramble on and list more gifts, but it is Christmas Eve and I would rather here from you. When you think of invisible gifts, what are you thankful for.
PS: Our sweet poet, Louise Gibson is not doing well. We would appreciate prayers for her and her family as they care for her.
One day in the mid-1960s, while Ray was at work, his daughter decided to clean their refrigerator and get rid of the ice in the freezing compartment. The only problem with this good-will gesture was that she used a knife to break up the ice in the freezing compartment, puncturing holes in it. When she finished her task, the refrigerator wouldn’t cool. When Ray got home from work that evening, she told him what she had done and that she couldn’t understand why the refrigerator wouldn’t cool. It didn’t take Ray long to discover the problem. But now, what to do? He called the Hussman’s refrigeration parts store to see how much a replacement freezing unit would cost and was told $100 + $50 for a service call to have it installed. Well, in those days a person could buy a new refrigerator for around $200. Ray figured he could repair the unit himself for less than that. He went to the local salvage yard and found a refrigerator similar to his and of the same make and asked the man how much he would charge Ray for the freezing unit. The man said, “$2.00, but you have to remove it yourself.” Ray removed the unit, took it home and installed it in his refrigerator. Once he had everything back together, he charged the system with Freon, and his refrigerator worked fine.
Sometime during this scenario, Ray had told his neighbor what had happened to his refrigerator, but not what he had done to fix the problem. The next time Ray saw his neighbor, he asked Ray, “Did you buy a new refrigerator?” Ray said, “No, I fixed the old one.” Then his neighbor said, “Really, do you think you could fix my window A/C unit?” Ray said, “I don’t know, I can take a look at it.” He took it to his shop, cleaned it up, added some Freon to the unit and it worked fine. When Ray gave the A/C unit back to his neighbor, the man asked, “How much do I owe you?” Ray said, “I’m not going to charge you anything for that.”
Well, evidently Ray’s neighbor told his friend what a good job Ray had done on his A/C unit, and the next thing Ray knew, the friend showed up at Ray’s house wanting to know if Ray could fix his window A/C unit. You know how word of mouth stories can get around. As could be expected, when people found out there was a reliable and reasonable air conditioning repair man around, it wasn’t long before Ray had more neighborhood air conditioning work than he knew what to do with.
Then one day Mike, who Ray was buying his air conditioning parts from, asked Ray if he would consider opening an air conditioning dealership to sell Bryant equipment. Ray told him he didn’t have the space for a dealership. Mike told Ray that if he would rent or buy a building, he would set Ray up with a Bryant dealership. Next thing he knew Ray was the owner of the Koolway Refrigeration Company.
We’re more or less skipping Christmas this year. I’ve told several people when they ask, “Are you ready for Christmas?” Asking is one of the thing good Americans do. But I’m going on with my daily routines, not because of the so called commercialism a lot of folks love to rave about, but because of the time and work that’s needed to fulfill the requirements and expectations of the holiday. I know a lot of people glory in those things, and I hope everything goes smoothly and well, for them.
We grass-root Americans are the cream of the crop, the salt of the earth, but we may have one or two weaknesses. One weakness may be to expect others to be like us. That’s the downside of tradition. The upside is lovely celebrations, being together with people you love, color, movement, music, gifts (if you need or want something and the givers choose correctly.)
The first four people I said no to when they asked, “Are you ready for Christmas?” gave me agreeable and kindly responses like, “I wish we could do that.” Those were men. One dear man asked if we were changing religions, though. I told him we weren’t skipping Jesus, not at all. The women gave a little different answer depending on whether they had children or grandchildren. Those selfless people struggle to do their best to make a memory and they love it and feel good about what they have accomplished. I do not begrudge them.
I did my best to make Christmas magical when our children and grandchildren were growing up. I bought them presents with money Bill earned, I put up a tree, and I baked. I was a good daughter and sister, too. I bought and sent packages to California and New Mexico and I spent hours writing Christmas cards with messages in them. The year I noticed that I was busy most of every day of December I began to think about slowing down. There were other things I’d rather be doing. For some, I know, the work of Christmas is a joy and I say God bless you in every endeavor. I know what fun those things can be.
This year I thought I’d watch Christmas movies to get me in the mood. Wouldn’t, “Are you in the in the mood for Christmas,” be a more telling question than are you ready for Christmas? Some people are in the mood and some aren’t, but why should anybody have to measure up to someone else’s perceptions about it? Let each of us know God and know ourselves and do what is right for us and our families.
Over the years, I’ve quit baking, reduced the number of gifts, and slowed down on decorating. This year I’m doing none of those things. This is the happiest and lightest Christmas I’ve ever had. Mostly I’m loving the music and other people’s decorations, we’re not so much into sweets anymore, but I don’t care what others think or do. I’m mature enough to make up my own mind what to focus on.
Even with all the conflict, I do thank God for giving His son, Jesus Christ, to walk with us through our time on earth and to forgive our trespasses… I do love Jesus. He is the greatest gift we could ever have received, and I’m satisfied with all the blessings he has given us, especially our friends and family. Please don’t judge us and we won’t judge you. We wish you a wonderful Christmas. And by the way, we’re grateful for every good (and bad) thing that comes our way, including any opportunity to show love to others.
Romans 12:2The Message (MSG)
Place Your Life Before God
12 1-2 So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.
Christmas didn’t call for a celebration. Not anymore. Not when you have a vital part of your life missing. It’s been twelve years since we lost our son Joe. Festivities don’t seem to have the joy they should. And Christmas trees don’t emanate the usual scent.
Actually, my days needed to erase Christmas, the birthdays, the holidays—all ushered pain rather than delight. They reminded me of what I once had and now what was gone. The world celebrated, greetings of good wishes filled the room. But when tragedy turns your world upside down, no amount of cheer can bring clarity to the fog of sadness.
Strange, though. Often, it’s the scorching pain that forces our eyes to open to a bigger picture. It did for me as I rewound memories of past Christmases.
Years ago, when our three sons, including Joe, were still young, I focused on providing a perfect Christmas, a perfect tree to wrap a perfect celebration. As a result, little things tended to roil in me such as a light strand that refused to shine because of a burned out bulb. Annoyed at the glitch, I promptly set off to resolve it —I fussed, I rearranged, plugged and unplugged until frustration grew hot in me. How foolish and silly. I focused on that one bulb, dismissing the glow of the star atop the Christmas tree.
I’ve done the same with light bulbs that burned in my life—from broken relationships to shattered plans. Exerting tons of energy trying to fix them, I missed Christ, the newborn King—the star that gave significance to my life. The star that covers shadows of gloom and sorrow.
Joe’s memories changed—his sweet smile, his tender hugs and his sense of humor now sit atop of my life, casting off that glow to bring back the joy. To remind me that he’s not gone, not from my heart, not from my mind. Also not gone are the images of his spunky self.
When that void in our heart aches to be filled, it’s Christ’s star of comfort that makes it whole. When bitter sorrow robs the spirit of Christmas, it’s the star of His everlasting love that whispers joy. When a health diagnosis shakes our world, it’s His star of reassurance that shines the certainty of new tomorrows. When the economy robs our security, it’s the star of God’s provision that ushers the radiance of reassurance. It’s the same star that never loses the brilliance of hope, incomprehensible hope, one we can safely embrace even when all strands of life burn out.
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I could ramble on and list more gifts, but it is Christmas Eve and I would rather here from you. When you think of invisible gifts, what are you thankful for.
than delight. They reminded me of what I once had and now what was gone. The world celebrated, greetings of good wishes filled the room. But when tragedy turns your world upside down, no amount of cheer can bring clarity to the fog of sadness.
Old Things R New 