Onisha Ellis

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Solitude

From the Heart

Louise Gibson

I have heard it said that solitude is the soul’s best friend.
It allows a quiet time within one’s self to dream, to comprehend.

That’s when we dream our dreams,
and pen our thoughts,
to bring them to fruition-
before they are ever verbalized
or expressed in composition.

It is only in the stillness of solitude, I find
the truth and purpose that brings peace of mind.

Source: Reflections of the Heart: March 2007

Tags: #Inspiration, Christian Poet, Florida Poet, Poem, Poetry

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Categories Louise Gibson From the Heart- Friday
Author Onisha Ellis

When I was a child I had my heart set on being a missionary. As I pretended to sweep the floor in my makeshift outdoor playhouse, my mind pictured me sweeping out a tent somewhere in Africa. I was sweeping the floor for Jesus.Then I grew up, drew away from the church for a time, and put the dream aside.

A few years ago, my local church opened Compassion House, a food pantry ministry to help feed our small community. I was excited. Working in a soup kitchen or food pantry had been a desire of my heart since I had put aside the missionary dream. I asked if I could help and was disappointed when I was told they had all the help they needed. Several years pass, pastors and members moved on and I assumed Compassion House was still fully staffed. Then, the first of February, a call went out of a need for volunteers to help stock shelves in Compassion House. It was at an inconvenient time but I was determined to make it work and I did.

After the shelves were stocked, I asked about helping on the days they were open, the first and third Tuesday of the month. To my joy, they said I would be welcome! I have worked two times so far and loved every minute of it.

This is the description of Compassion House from the church website:

Compassion House exists to meet physical needs as well as spiritual needs. Our guests needing assistance will have the opportunity to sit and talk with a trained volunteer who will pray with them.

A new visitor to Compassion House is interviewed to determine their food needs and a top notch social worker is on site to assist with social and medical needs. Based on the interview each person is allotted a specific number of food items. Each time they check in, they are given a slip of paper with their name as well as the number of items they may choose.Then they are sent down the walkway to the room with the food. Our food pantry gives the individuals the opportunity to choose their items, rather than handing them a pre-packed bag and my job was greet them, usually by name and assist them with choosing items, bagging and offering help carrying their bags,

This week a young man came in and as he was collecting his items, his movements made me think of someone who might be high. I felt uneasy. Then as he gathered the last of his items, he thanked us and said his children were going to be so happy when they came home from school and had food to eat. That wrecked my heart.

Why am I sharing this? My church is not the only one in our small community who offers a helping hand of food and sometimes clothing to those in need. The top notch social worker spends time each week at several food pantries in town and her salary is paid through a foundation which gets its money from fund raising events. America has good and generous people and I hope to begin a weekly series titled “Helping Hands” to spotlight their efforts.

How about you? Do you know of a church or organization that offers a helping hand in your community? If you would like to share your story, please comment below and If you are one of our many international readers I would be delighted to read and share your stories too.

Tags: Feeding the community, Feeding the hungry., How do churches help those needing food?

Comments 12 Comments
Categories Helping Hands, Onisha Ellis On the Porch- Thursday
Author Onisha Ellis

Does God love us when we’re bad? Five ways to know. | Janet Perez Eckles

20 Feb

Walking by Faith, Not by Sight

Janet Perez Eckles

I blew kisses and waved good-bye at my two grandkids. They waved back from the back seat. “Remember,” I called out, “no more, no less.”

In her high-pitched voice, my eight-year-old granddaughter called back, “No more, no less, Nana.”

That’s our secret code. It began one night as I wrapped a fluffy towel around her after her bath. I cupped her soft face in my hands and looked into her blue eyes… “Always remember, princess, that there is nothing you can do to make me love you more. And there’s nothing you could ever do to make me love you less.”

Ever since then, that was our code each time we part: “no more, no less.”

I learned that from Romans 8:39; “Neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

He (God) loves us no matter what:

When we fall. When we make errors, mistakes and ruin what we thought would be a good thing.
When we fail in our attempt to do something good, worthwhile or important.
When we frown at the sadness of life. And when that sadness turns to tears of sorrow, anger or confusion.
When we forget. When we forget the power of His love, the length of His compassion and the sincerity of His promises.
When we feign. When we try to fool others by putting a smile on the outside yet, inside we are falling apart.

He still loves us. He still calls us. And He still looks for us to receive that immense love.

Source: Does God love us when we’re bad? Five ways to know. | Janet Perez Eckles

Tags: Blind Inspirational author, God's Love, Inspirational

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Categories Janet Perez Eckles-Walking by faith, Not by Sight-Saturday
Author Onisha Ellis

Counting One’s Interest

19 Feb

From the Heart

Louise Gibson

“One should never count the years–one should count one’s interests.

I have kept young trying never to lose my childhood sense of wonderment.

I am glad I still have a vivid curiosity about the world I live in.

“Helen Keller, 1880-1968Blind and Deaf American Writer and Scholar The writer of that beautiful philosophy expressed my sentiments so eloquently-

But I humbly acknowledge my advantage-

I can hear! And I can see!

But did she hear more clearly than I?

And did she see through the Master’s eye?

Oh, how blessed to have the Master’s touch-

to live to serve- to give so much.

May I never take for granted

the blessings of each day-

A kind word, a noble deed,

encouragement along the way.

Ocean with cliffs

Source: Reflections of the Heart: February 2007

Tags: Helen Keller, Inspirational, Poem, Poetry

Comments 2 Comments
Categories Louise Gibson From the Heart- Friday
Author Onisha Ellis

Three Bible Truths That Struck Fear in my Heart

18 Feb

On the Porch

Onisha Elllis

Last week as I tried to write this blog, I couldn’t seem to put my thoughts together so I decided to let it rest for a week. I posted my first ever “teaser” and used that time to mull and pray for clarity of thought and words. Until age twelve I spent a lot of time at church. My mother was a Sunday School teacher, my dad a deacon as well as the Training Union director and they both sang in the choir. ( It was a wonderful choir). When they were needed at church, I was there too. Although there were some people who did not behave in a loving, Godly manner, most appeared to be genuine believers, whose desire was to serve God. It was in that church where I gave my heart to Christ and learned how much he loved me.

Lucerne Park Baptist Church, Orlando, Florida

Over the years I heard a LOT of sermons, good ones too. Yet there were three teachings of Jesus that I feared:

Don’t be a milk drinker
The gate to heaven is narrow
I never knew you.

I didn’t see how my imperfect self could ever measure up.

Don’t be a milk drinker

The passage that admonished me to not drink milk is Hebrews 12:13-14. Verse 13 reads:

For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe.

milk-glass-frisch-healthy-drink-nutritious-krug-2

Sermons based on this verse admonished me to stop needing to be spoon fed and grow up. I turned to Biblegateway to get a more readable translation and found The Message Version.

11-14 I have a lot more to say about this, but it is hard to get it across to you since you’ve picked up this bad habit of not listening. By this time you ought to be teachers yourselves, yet here I find you need someone to sit down with you and go over the basics on God again, starting from square one—baby’s milk, when you should have been on solid food long ago! Milk is for beginners, inexperienced in God’s ways; solid food is for the mature, who have some practice in telling right from wrong.

Sometimes it seemed that as soon as I started on the solid food of God’s word, I would relapse to the milk diet. I worried that I was stalled there forever, destined to be a milk drinker.

The gate to heaven is narrow. Matthew 7:13-14 worried me a lot during my childhood and early adult years.

“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” NIV

I was surrounded by Godly people. How was my mess of a life going to fit through that gate?

Woman crossing suspension bridge

In my lifetime, I have seen a trend to “widen the tent” or in this case, the gate. The Message translation explains this far better than I can.

13-14 “Don’t look for shortcuts to God. The market is flooded with surefire, easygoing formulas for a successful life that can be practiced in your spare time. Don’t fall for that stuff, even though crowds of people do. The way to life—to God!—is vigorous and requires total attention. “

This one doesn’t frighten me now. I believe that narrow gate will hold all who earnestly seek the ways of the Savior.

I never knew you. My heart quaked when I considered this scripture, Luke 13:27

But he shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence ye are; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity. NIV

Puzzled girl

How could he say that?

Once again, I turned to The Message and read several more verses.

23-25 A bystander said, “Master, will only a few be saved?”

He said, “Whether few or many is none of your business. Put your mind on your life with God. The way to life—to God!—is vigorous and requires your total attention. A lot of you are going to assume that you’ll sit down to God’s salvation banquet just because you’ve been hanging around the neighborhood all your lives. Well, one day you’re going to be banging on the door, wanting to get in, but you’ll find the door locked and the Master saying, ‘Sorry, you’re not on my guest list.’

26-27 “You’ll protest, ‘But we’ve known you all our lives!’ only to be interrupted with his abrupt, ‘Your kind of knowing can hardly be called knowing. You don’t know the first thing about me.’

Banquet room

I love how Jesus admonished them to mind their own business and to put their mind on their own life with God. I have learned that spending time with God is not giving him my list of daily requests, rather it is daily giving myself to him. I confess, I am still learning.

Many, many years ago, DiVoran Lites shared with me her theory of fiery darts and I have never forgotten it. To paraphrase, Satan has a bundle of darts at his disposal and he chooses ones that will attack weakness.

For me he attacked the maturity of my faith (milk drinker), my worthiness to enter Christ’s kingdom (narrow gate) and my fear of being rejected ( I never knew you). DiVoran suggested that when those darts arrived, I should mentally reject them and return them to the sender. I do this by claiming God’s word in my life, especially the verses that I call my “cling-tos”

I’d like to share with you one of my favorite “cling-to” verses.

Romans 8:38-39

38 For I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from his love. Death can’t, and life can’t. The angels won’t, and all the powers of hell itself cannot keep God’s love away. Our fears for today, our worries about tomorrow, 39 or where we are—high above the sky, or in the deepest ocean—nothing will ever be able to separate us from the love of God demonstrated by our Lord Jesus Christ when he died for us

Nothing, nothing can separate me from his love! Isn’t that the best? .

“See, I have written your name on the palms of my hands.” -Isaiah 49_16a_-2

Tags: Faith, Fear, Inspirational, Love

Comments 5 Comments
Categories Onisha Ellis On the Porch- Thursday
Author Onisha Ellis

My First Car~Part 2

17 Feb

A Slice of Life

Bill Lites

The extra money I saved working at Furr’s Super Market allowed me (with my parents help) buy a new Harley Davidson Sportster when I was 17. This machine was the one that got me interested in motor cycle clubs there in Albuquerque. They had all kinds of cool club events that I participated in. The one I liked the most was the “Hare & Hound” chase at night. A bunch of us would line up abreast with our lights on, and then act as the “Hounds” and slowly take off across the desert until we flushed a rabbit. Then it was open throttles to see who could chase down the rabbit first. Do any of you have any idea how fast a rabbit can run and make a 90-degree turns? Needless to say, that could be a very bumpy ride as the wind would deposit small mound of sand around each little tuft of vegetation, and running over one would sometimes causing unexpected airborne adventures.

When I was 18 my parents finally relented and allowed me (Here it comes!!) to buy “My First Car.” I think the main reason for their decision was that the car was in pretty sad shape and needed a lot of work, so they figured I couldn’t get in too much trouble with it. I can’t remember who I bought it from, but I paid a whopping $50.00 dollars for it. It was a 1940 Chevy Coupe and all I can say is that it ran. Now came the challenge I had been waiting for all those years. Rebuilding lawn mower and motorcycle engines had kept me busy over the years, but it had not satisfied the desire to rebuild my own car. Now I had a car to work on that I could call my own. Believe it or not, when I said it would run, I wasn’t kidding, flat out it wouldn’t go over 50 mph on a level road, and much less up hill.

The first thing I did was to get the car into our garage and began to clean up the engine. I didn’t have a lot of tools or a hoist, so I didn’t remove the engine. But I degreased the engine, flushed the radiator, replaced the water hoses, replaced the spark plugs, cleaned up the distributor and installed new points. I changed the oil and installed a new oil filter and a new air filter. Then I rebuilt the carburetor and, with a friends help, adjusted the timing. I painted the rocker cover, oil filter, air filter, oil filler cap and water pump to make the engine compartment look a little flashier.

Then I started to work on the body. I found some replacement bumpers and grill at an auto salvage yard (that was back when you could remove the parts needed yourself and very cheaply). I had to replace the heater hoses, install new seat covers, install new floor mats, and recover the platform under the rear window. Of course I had to have a “Necker’s Knob” on the steering wheel. And amazingly the radio worked (on most local stations). The next thing was to sand down all the rough spots on the body (apply and sand “Bondo” where needed) and primer the entire body. We didn’t have clear-coat finishes back then and I didn’t have the money for a fancy multi-coat lacquer job, so a friend helped me with a nice enamel paint job. When I was finished with all that, the only difference between how my car looked and the one in the photo below is that my car was painted Turquoise, had a permanent windshield visor and no fog lights.

As it turned out, I finished fixing the car up just in time to meet, DiVoran, the love of my life. However, the when, where and how we met is another story for another time and blog. I knew DiVoran’s brother, David, from working with him at Furr’s Super Market, and when he told her he knew this guy at work who had a car and a motorcycle, she said, “I know a Bill Lites from school. Maybe I should get to know him a little better.” Well, she did get to know me better; a lot better, and we spent many evenings after that in “My First Car” running around town and at the drive-in movies. I drove that car until I shipped out with the U.S. Navy. Funny thing about that car; I had waited so long to get it, and now can’t remember who I bought it from. Then I put all that time, money and effort into restoring it, and now, for the life of me, I can’t t remember exactly to who or when I sold it. Oh well, I’m just glad I have this much of the memory of that time during my teenage years.

—–The End—–

Tags: #amblogging, A boys first car., Memoir, Youthful Memories

Comments 1 Comment
Categories Bill Lites A Slice of Life- Wednesday
Author Onisha Ellis

The Cruise of a Lifetime~Part 3

14 Feb

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

JUDY

Our second morning began again with breakfast. We shared our table with Tina and Bob.

We had sailed overnight to Cologne, Germany, and arrived about 10:30 a.m. Shortly thereafter, we began the walking tour of the historical center of the city. Our guide told us that Cologne is the oldest city in Germany. It dates back to around AD 50, when the Romans established a major settlement. We had a really interesting guide. He told us how the Romans conquered one side of the river – the side we were on – but couldn’t get across to the other side. They called the people on the other side “barbarians.” Now, the politically correct people call them the “cross-eyed” people instead.

In 1709, Italian expat and Cologne resident Giovani Farina created a citrus-scented toiletry he dubbed “Eau de Cologne” in honor of his adopted city. Other perfumeries followed, especially Wilhelm Meulhens, who founded the famous “4711″ brand (named after the address of his manufacturing building). There are several museums in the area, as well as a Chocolate Museum – which we didn’t get to!

Because it was Sunday we could not get into the cathedral until after services, so we walked around the outside of it and the square. Our guide told us about the cathedral, how long it took to build which part, which was the oldest, etc. He gave us other information about Cologne. He was a very interesting man.

Many years ago, while we were living in Germany and took our own tours of the country, we visited Cologne, and found a fountain that depicted an interesting and funny story about German workers.

Judy in front of fountain 1969

In front of fountain 1983

While on our tour, we walked right up to the fountain – called the Elves of Cologne. We were so excited! We thought we would have to find it on our own, and there it was! Wikipedia says: The Heinzelmännchen are a race of creatures appearing in a tale connected with the city of Cologne in Germany. The little house gnomes are said to have done all the work of the citizens of Cologne during the night, so that the inhabitants of Cologne could be very lazy during the day. According to the legend, this went on until a tailor’s wife got so curious to see the gnomes that she scattered peas onto the floor of the workshop to make the gnomes slip and fall. The gnomes, being infuriated, disappeared and never returned. From that time on, the citizens of Cologne had to do all their work by themselves.

After lunch and naps on the ship, Fred and I went back out into Cologne to find a book on the Elves of Cologne, which we found in the “information” building. The story is essentially what I remember about it.

Our dinner companions that night were an Australian couple, Velma and Jeff.

We also had Jill and Roy from Albuquerque, New Mexico (actually Belen). He is a retired veterinarian, and she is a retired nurse. We had a most interesting talk about Albuquerque We also had dinner with Rich and Mary from Pennsylvania who we ate with the first night on board.

Back to the room and relatively early to bed. These are long days, and we still aren’t over our jet-lag.

~~~~~~~~~~To Be Continued~~~~~~~~~~

Tags: Cruising, Memoir, River Cruise through Europe, Travel Series

Ten tips to make your marriage sizzle with love.

13 Feb

Walking by Faith, Not by Sight

Janet Perez Eckles

Janet Eckles Perez

When I was 23 and said “I do” to my hubby; I had no clue what I was saying. When I committed to love him no matter what, I didn’t expect my selfish ways to be a problem. And when I vowed to cherish him, sometimes I asked myself what in the world that meant.

Then something happened. Something that shook me, slapped my senses and that’s when our relationship began to glow.

All began when……adversity visited our marriage. Blame flew all over our arguments, hardships threatened to divide us, and heartache zapped our romance.

Then God intervened. We both turned to him. Admitting our frailty and foolishness, we placed it all before Him. With desperate hearts, we both looked up at Him, His instructions, His guidance, and His wisdom. Then with His brush of love, He painted strokes of restoration, healing, and strength.

And when we recently celebrated our 40th anniversary, I reflected on what keeps us in love, cherishing each other and expecting another 40 years.

Here are the 10 tips to make your marriage glow no matter what you’re facing:

Forgive the small stuff, talk about the big stuff, and forgive that, too.
As often as possible, bring to mind your spouse’s strengths.
Praise your spouse before others. A compliment in private is encouraging. Praise before others is transforming.
Never try to change your spouse. Find what needs to change in you instead.
Make memories by planning moments together.
Surprise each other with a kind gesture.
Write your feelings of love rather than just saying them.
Physical contact is good for the heart. Make sure to give a hug, a loving tap, a squeeze of the arm, a peck, etc. Do this at least eight times a day (proven to be a powerful habit that keeps blood pressure down).
When discussing difficult concerns, avoid blame; instead express how you feel inside.
Express gratitude often, and even for little things.

A marriage is a sailboat; we are in control of the sail, determining where it goes.

i-love-you