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Life During Covid-19 Part 13

16 May

Corona Couture

On the Porch

Onisha Ellis

I wondered how long it would take before Corona Couture hit the stores. I made a quick trip to Beall’s Outlet this morning and found these shirts.

I confess that if the Faith over Fear shirt had been in any color except yellow, I would have taken one home. Faith over Fear is my personal mantra when I am feeling overwhelmed.

I only found one item I needed in the outlet store so my husband drove me to the Beall’s Florida store. I was searching for a bandana type protection mask. No luck, but I did see this box. I can’t tell you how exciting it is to me to see merchandisers realizing that people are not willing to live in fear.

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Life During Covid 19 Part 12

14 May

Leaving Florida

On the Porch

Onisha Ellis

Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.

1 Peter 5:7

That sounds really spiritual doesn’t it? In truth, I am being part silly and part serious. You see, I have waited weeks for Florida to allow hair salons to open. WEEKS! We even delayed our return to God’s country, AKA Western North Carolina, hoping for an appointment this week.

When the anxiously awaited text arrived, my appointment was for a week from today. With great sorrow, I declined the appointment. You see, in my morning prayers this week I told God that if I didn’t get a date ( That I had been praying fervently for) this week, that I would give my hair care to Him. The Bible tells us that God’s ways and thoughts are higher than mine and I am banking on him having a better plan for my hair. I wonder who I will have the opportunity to meet.

So far, my hair salon experiences in North Carolina have not been positive.

I do believe in miracles so I am hoping for my stylist to have a cancellation. We need to pray for all of the barbers and hair stylist, you know they are going to be worked to death! Not only do they cut our hair, they have to heavily sanitize between each client.

So, it seems Lord willin’ and the creek don’t rise, next Thursday I will be writing to you from North Carolina. I’m not sure if they have toilet paper in the stores but I do know that one of the distilleries is making hand sanitizer. I plan to buy a gallon!

Remember how we once laughed at our Depression era parents who saved things? I absolutely understand now. I can imagine once I am gone, some stranger going through my things will ask with scorn why the old lady kept all those yucky bottles. And don’t get me started on paper products. I’m thinking we may need to add a paper products room to our house. Or failing that, I am sure my husband will be happy to give up his workshop. LOL

Another area of Coronavirus induced understanding is church attendance. In the last century people would pack lunch and load up the wagon or car and take the family to church for the WHOLE day. I couldn’t imagine that. Now I can. For the most part people in the past were rural and didn’t have much interaction outside the family. Church was a time to join together in worship and friendship. With all of the staying at home, my heart grew hungry to be with my brothers and sisters in Christ. It was thrilling to attend service last week, even socially distant. Smiles and nods only.

Our North Carolina church has been having drive-in services and I look forward to attending. The Governor might have closed the sanctuaries but he hasn’t quenched the desire to worship together.

We will be without a friend when we return to our North Carolina house. The parents of Gus, our beloved porch dog, have sold their house. We hadn’t seen him on our security cameras and worried that he might have been in an accident. We are pleased he is ok, but will miss his sweet presence on our porch. He enriched our lives.

If we had to be stuck at home, I am thankful we were with our daughter. We made memories on our Sunday drives, suppers on the patio and savoring frosty whipped coffees.

I am going to miss my friends…a lot. We have friends in North Carolina too, and I love them, but my Florida friends are the ones who have shared my life and I cherish them.

Okay, getting too mushy, time to wrap up this blog piece. It’s not like this is the first time we have made this transition. I will blame it on Corona. To the mountains we go!

Webcam at Newfound Gap North Carolina/Tennessee line.

Life During Covid-19 Part 11

8 May

Another Sunday Drive

On the Porch

Onisha Ellis

Before I begin to recount my week, let me say that Thursday was a beautiful Florida day. The temperature didn’t move out of the 70s and there was a nice breeze. These days are rare in May and I savored it.

Sunday began as usual during this pandemic. I woke earlier than the family as I wanted to catch one of our local churches 8:15 am service. It’s very contemporary and I don’t think I would enjoy being in attendance at the service, but I do enjoy the pastor’s messages and I admire how the church serves our community.

My husband wasn’t feeling the best so we didn’t make any plans for the rest of the day. The milkweed our daughter planted last year had been visited by caterpillars this spring. We think Sunday was the coming out day of a beautiful monarch. According to fellow blogger, Melody Hendrix, a newly emerged butterfly will remain motionless on a leaf as it drys its new wings. Rebekah was able to get a beautiful photo.

Rebekah’s gardenia bush is blooming and was visited as well.

Late in the afternoon, my husband perked up and we decided to explore Peacock’s Pocket, a road in the marsh that we missed last week. The road was a lot wider and less rough than last week…at least in the beginning.

This drive took us quite close to Kennedy Space Center and we had several views of the VAB-Vehicle Assembly Building, where spacecraft from Mercury to the space shuttles were processed.

Peacock’s Pocket road ended at the Indian River with a wide turn around area. Several people were fishing and one family complete with a dog had set up a canopy for shade and were hanging out together.

We have lived near the banks of the Indian River with its view of the space center for 49 years and I haven’t tired of it. I appreciate the blending of nature and space technology.

We couldn’t end the drive without a father/daughter photo. The sun was shining in their faces and I was not their favorite person at that moment. I think my husband has decided to not shave until the travel restrictions are lifted!

Monday our daughter received an email announcing the opening of one of her favorite shops. She needed a throw rug for the kitchen floor she and her father had installed and was happy to get the news. I went along to the store as well as her decor consultant. Since it is a small store, I wore a mask and armed myself with hand sanitizer.

And that pretty much sums up my week’s outings except for Wednesday grocery shopping. For reading, I finished a cheesy Regency audio book ( my antidote to the toxic political climate) and started book two in a mystery series written by a local author. I’ve begun a new evening devotional read titled, Draw the Circle by Mark Batterson, The 40 Day Prayer Challenge. I had been wanting to read it for quite some time. I am on day 8 and am enjoying the insights on prayer.

I would like to wish a happy Mother’s Day to each of the moms out there and if your mother is alive, cherish her and make he feel special. Trust me, you will miss her more than you can imagine when she is gone.

I'm a winnerAfter my retirement, I decided to re-learn the canning and preserving skills I learned from my mother but hadn’t practiced for twenty years. I titled the blog Old Things R New to chronicle my experience.  Since then I have been blessed to have six other bloggers join me, DiVoran Lites, Bill Lites,  Judy Wills, Louise Gibson, Janet Perez Eckles and Melody Hendrix

In addition to blogging, I work as the publicist/marketer/ amateur editor and general  “mom Friday” for my author daughter, Rebekah Lyn. I also manage her website, Rebekah Lyn Books  where we frequently host the best in up and coming authors.

My 2019 goal is to use my love of photographs and words to be an encourager on social media. You can visit Real Life Books and Media You Tube Channel if you would like to view some of the mini-videos I have created for our church, Gateway Community in Titusville, Fl.

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Helping Hands During Covid 19

6 May

On the Porch

Onisha Ellis

Daily I am amazed and thankful for the acts of kindness and compassion being carried out to feed the people in our state. Florida thrives on the tourism industry and has been tragically hard hit with furloughed jobs. Unemployment compensation has not even begun for many.

So much of the media news is negative and fear producing. I decided to share the positive and good that is happening around me. This is a very small snapshot.

The Grove church started their Covid-19 food ministry giving out 400 BBQ chicken meals, they increased the number each week and then local restaurants began donating the food. A few years ago the church was meeting at the YMCA and looking for an existing building to renovate for a permanent home. They chose an old, almost derelict vacant grocery store. It took two years for them to restore and convert it. God’s hand was in this plan! Because the building was previously a free standing grocery store it has an enormous parking lot, making them a perfect staging area for giving out food.

Our State Representative used one month of his legislative salary to fund a food distribution in his district. He partnered with FarmShare and he ran out of food in two hours. He has since partnered with FarmShare for a larger distribution and another is planned for May 7, 2020.

About FarmShare: With your help Farm Share can bring a semi-truck containing 42,000 pounds of fresh food to identified communities in need and distribute it to over 1,000 hungry families.

If you would like to know more about FarmShare click HERE

A call went out to the community that our homeless were in need and Representative Randy Fine responded as did others in the community.

First Baptist in Orlando is hoping to collect enough food to provide a week of meals to 500 families.

Our local YMCA is helping out too!

My favorite organization in our community is Hummingbird Pantry. I learned of it from people who come to our church food pantry. It is run by volunteers and gives out thousands of tons of food. We have been a couple of times since Covid began. You don’t choose your food. They load one of whatever (Or more if you have a large household) is available into you car. The first week I went to learn about it and curious to see if our church food pantry could receive some of the fresh veggie items. After a two hour wait, we received among other things, a case of fresh corn. We were able to share it with five other families. We’ve gone a couple of other times to get food to distribute to others, especially this who can’t get there.

This week they uploaded a video to You Tube showing the huge amount of cars in line and explaining their mission. The need is so great their resources are stretched thin and they are hoping for donations. Somehow they almost always have flowers. Feeding the spirit as well as the body.

I would love to read about your community or your volunteer work during this virus. If you have blogged about it, leave the link in comments! Together, we are winning.

All pictures are screen shots from Facebook.

I'm a winnerAfter my retirement, I decided to re-learn the canning and preserving skills I learned from my mother but hadn’t practiced for twenty years. I titled the blog Old Things R New to chronicle my experience.  Since then I have been blessed to have six other bloggers join me, DiVoran Lites, Bill Lites,  Judy Wills, Louise Gibson, Janet Perez Eckles and Melody Hendrix

In addition to blogging, I work as the publicist/marketer/ amateur editor and general  “mom Friday” for my author daughter, Rebekah Lyn. I also manage her website, Rebekah Lyn Books  where we frequently host the best in up and coming authors.

My 2019 goal is to use my love of photographs and words to be an encourager on social media. You can visit Real Life Books and Media You Tube Channel if you would like to view some of the mini-videos I have created for our church, Gateway Community in Titusville, Fl.

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Life During Covid-19 Part 10

1 May

Bring Back the Sunday Drive

On the Porch

Onisha Ellis

Our daughter began working from home last Monday. Due to furloughs of most of her coworkers, she was assigned the evening shift all week but day shift on Saturdays. My husband and I teased her that now she would know what  “Safe at Home” really felt like.  

Image by Annalise Batista from Pixabay

All went smoothly until Saturday. Once her shift was over she was restless and I thought she was exhibiting signs of safe at home-itis. Finally she said, I’m going for a drive, do you want to come with me? Of course I said yes.  As she drove she began to relax. Her normal work routine involves an hour commute. Turns out the commute was her post work decompression time.

Image by Jill Wellington from Pixabay

Sunday morning we watched a couple of church services before deciding what to do with the rest of the day. I suggested a Sunday drive. The day was beautiful and I thought getting safely out of the house would be good for all of us. We filled water bottles and grabbed our cameras and headed out to drive the Merritt Island Wildlife Drive.

The drive is an unpaved one-lane road. Unless it is prime birding season it isn’t heavily traveled.  Sunday, it was heavily traveled. It was good to see families out enjoying nature. I’m glad that even though the bathrooms were closed due to the shutdown, the drive was open.

There was another drive we had wanted to explore for quite a while but we didn’t want to drive it in our car.  Fortunately, in early March we made a quick trip to North Carolina and exchanged our car for my husband’s truck. (That’s a whole other story) The unpaved road aptly named Gator Creek Road winds through the marshes between the Indian River and the beach.

  It is two-way traffic but in places, it is barely wide enough and one vehicle has to pull to the side. We expected it to be deserted. We were wrong.  There were a lot of families fishing, sunbathing and enjoying the water.

This is one of my favorite pictures of the day.  The couple had their fishing poles cast out and had everything they needed… a cooler, tackle boxes and each other.

On our way to the wild life drive, we drove past a riverside boat ramp and park. Both were packed with cars. I snapped a picture of the park on the way home. It was still packed. People were not 6 feet apart but while their car were jammed they weren’t jammed together outside of their family. A lot were on jet skis or cooling off in the water. I was happy to see families enjoying spending time outdoors together. 

Monday and Tuesday were safe at home ho-hum.  The bright spot for me on Monday was I made my first beef brisket.  I cooked it for 6 hours at 250 degrees. It turned out really well. Next time I hope we can cook one in our new smoker. That is if we can get meat by the time we return to North Carolina.  I also made bacon jam. I couldn’t imagine how it would taste but it turned out delicious and went well with the brisket.

Tuesday wasn’t a good day for my husband. I had placed a pick up order at Sam’s Club and he drove me down there, then spent the remainder of the day resting. The warehouse club is in a nearby city that has a higher number of virus cases than our town and I didn’t want to spend time in the store.

Our grocery day seems to have switched to Wednesday while we are safe at home. My daughter and I went to Target first to pick up some grocery and non-grocery items.  I feel comfortable shopping there as it is not crowded and social distancing is adhered to. The previous week I wanted to buy two packages of parchment cupcake liners but there was only one on the shelf.  ( Target is the only store in our town that carries them) I was hoping to get another one. I can order online but it is double the price. Have you shopped in the baking aisle of the grocery stores? Target’s shelves were almost empty of cake and cookies mixes. Apparently there is also a shortage of yeast. Americans are baking as never before. Boredom baking or baking with the family? I am curious, is it this way in your town or country? 

By the way, have you noticed all the families riding bikes? I have heard that bicycle stores are doing a booming business. When we were in Target the bike section only had two for sale. I hope this trend continues.

Our next stop was Aldi. It is a smaller store so I wear a mask and carry hand sanitizer. They have done an excellent job of keeping food on the shelves. Eggs were scarce for a couple of weeks but seem to be fine now. I was even able to buy potting soil they had as a special deal. Their meat choices were limited so I placed a pick up order with Wal-Mart.  Fingers crossed that when I pick it up tomorrow, the meat will be there. Wal-Mart is always busy and I haven’t been brave enough to go inside once the virus began spreading.

Wednesday our Florida governor shared his plan for business to resume.  It is going to be a slow roll beginning May 4th. To my despair, hair salons are not included. I am now looking for an underground hair stylist.

I’m not sure why, but Thursday Hobby Lobby announced that it would be reopening in our town. Oh happy day!  Later in the day an email arrived announcing the reopening of Tuesday Morning on Friday. My daughter has been pining to shop there. I’m sure she will be there when they open, socially distant, of course.

That’s the story of my week, well except for books I am reading, social media work and an online Bible study on the book of Job. What was your week like? Have you discovered a favorite restaurant for take out, a new hobby or a television show to binge watch>

I'm a winnerAfter my retirement, I decided to re-learn the canning and preserving skills I learned from my mother but hadn’t practiced for twenty years. I titled the blog Old Things R New to chronicle my experience.  Since then I have been blessed to have six other bloggers join me, DiVoran Lites, Bill Lites,  Judy Wills, Louise Gibson, Janet Perez Eckles and Melody Hendrix

In addition to blogging, I work as the publicist/marketer/ amateur editor and general  “mom Friday” for my author daughter, Rebekah Lyn. I also manage her website, Rebekah Lyn Books  where we frequently host the best in up and coming authors.

My 2019 goal is to use my love of photographs and words to be an encourager on social media. You can visit Real Life Books and Media You Tube Channel if you would like to view some of the mini-videos I have created for our church, Gateway Community in Titusville, Fl.

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Life During Covid 19-Part 9

25 Apr

The Comments Trap

On the Porch

Onisha Ellis

I am a comments section junky. I have a nosy curiosity about people. Why does a person hold a particular opinion? Is it from personal experience? How do they express themselves-with humor, kindness or rudeness? What motivates them?

Reading comments can be enlightening, but for me it can also be a trap. There is truth in what our mother’s taught us about not saying anything if you can’t say something nice. Even when I don’t comment negatively, my brain is churning with negative replies. This isn’t healthy for me spiritually or mentally.

So I am purposing to do better but I haven’t worked out the details yet. : )

This morning we went to the food distribution center. We waited in line for two hours but we had an audio book to finish and there was a nice breeze.

We never know what they are giving out, the surprise is part of the experience. Today they had an abundance of produce. South Florida has been turning under crops due to a lack of restaurants to supply. I am wondering if the veggies came from repurposing efforts to get the food to families. Today they had potatoes, onions, broccoli, cucumbers, peppers, cabbage, and beets as well as a package of pork chops, shredded cheese and a half gallon of milk. We don’t have an abundance of funds to share but we do have an abundance of time. We were able to share most of what we brought home with a neighbor friend who is a nurse and she shared with her parents. Together we will make it through this crisis.

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Life During Covid-19 Part 8

23 Apr

We Are So Blessed

On the Porch

Onisha Ellis

We have toilet paper, hand sanitizer and paper towels. Two months ago, these items would not have made my thankful list of blessings. Coronavirus has changed our world. We definitely spend more time together.

Saturday night we watched the 25th anniversary of Phantom of the Opera from the Prince Albert Auditorium. It was free on You Tube. I am not a huge fan of the show but Mike and Rebekah love it. The best was the finale. Andrew Lloyd Webber and his wife made an appearance along with the original Phantom. Sarah Brightman sang an except with the original Phantom then with great drama several actors through the years joined them onstage to sing. It was magical.

On Sundays we eagerly tune in to a couple of our favorite churches online services. During the week we each have favorite churches and ministers that we listen to. If nothing else, this virus has created in us soul hunger.

Sunday night we watched Hope Rising, a group of Christian singers and speakers on Facebook.

Over 3 million people watched and worshipped together. Our churches are closed but our hearts are praising. The concert was to raise money for Samaritan’s Purse and their medical team. It accomplished so much more, inspiring all with a sense of unity in Jesus. As of Tuesday 1.6 million dollars were donated and this was a zero budget production!

Our daughter has been fortunate to not be furloughed from her job as most of her team have been. Monday was her first day of working from home. We rode with her to east Orlando (Any reason for an outing!) to meet a coworker and receive the “work” phone. She will be working 3-1130 pm. A shift in our family dynamics, but not a bad thing. Before The meet up for the phone was set in the deserted Chilli’s parking lot (Which felt kind of like a drug hang off. ) Before the meet up we went to the drive through at Culvers and got their cashew chicken for our supper. We really enjoy Culvers. And I love not cooking!

It’s warm in Florida but Wednesday there was a steady breeze that held a hint of cool. Any day now, the winds will shift and feel like they are coming off the equator. After a grocery run to Aldi, my daughter and I decided to sit out on the patio. We have an abundance of birds at the feeders and in the trees. Much more than usual. I choose to believe that God is providing them to enliven our days as we enjoy watching them. Rebekah put up the patio umbrella while I made each of us a granita.

I modified the recipe for the granita, which is an icy coffee drink, from one that I found on Cooking Keto with Kristi. This is a good blog if you eat low carb. Currently she is sharing 10 days of sheet pan meals using meats and foods one has on hand.

As I was writing this, the radio reminded me that SpaceX would be launching in two minutes with a payload of satellites. These satellites are set to create a new internet delivery system. I should have remembered that the radio is on delay. The rocket was already speeding on its journey by the time I grabbed my camera.


Later I went outside to take a picture of the Town Home construction across the street. The construction has been clogging the road making backing out of the drive a pain. Of course the trucks weren’t there. I am choosing to be thankful the crews are working and people will be getting new homes. It’s easy for me to choose thankfulness. I’m not the one who has to back our truck!


This week as I mentally list the good things happening as a result of what I call The Pause, I also feel guilt. There are heartbroken and frightened people around me and I can’t fix them. Thanks to the masks, I can’t even smile at people or receive a smile in the store, unless my eyes send the smile. Families are being separated at the hospital and die with only the staff at their bedside. This is brutal. I pray that those alone are surrounded with comforting angels. I don’t know it that is Biblical but I am praying it.

I am reminded of a favorite Bible verse, Proverbs 3:5-6

Trust in the Lord with all your heart;
    do not depend on your own understanding.
6 Seek his will in all you do,
    and he will show you which path to take.

I’m counting on this verse!

I almost forgot! Did you see this fun video on Facebook?

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Daily Life During Covid-19 Part 7

16 Apr

On the Porch

Onisha Ellis

Oh My Hair!

I haven’t had my hair trimmed since February 4, 2020. In the grocery store, I am beginning to look at women with suspicion. Are their roots showing? Is their hair shaggy?

Are they sneaking out to an underground hairdresser?

Image by mohamed Hassan from Pixabay

I was so close to making it to my appointment before essential businesses were closed. Would it be wrong to text my stylist and say, “hey girl how are you and would you mind making me your first appointment when you are back in the salon?” Or, maybe I should have chocolate delivered to her with a note.

I am having issues with golf being essential but personal grooming is not. I predict a lot of women working from home through video conferencing will be sporting some form of hat. Once your co-workers have seen you with “house hair” there is no going back, especially if someone captures a screen shot. On the other hand, one could use the screen shots as leverage. I can imagine a lot of screen shots going on.

Wednesday we ventured out to restock our pantry and husband needed some man-store time. We headed for Sam’s Club first but it had a line so we drove past and went to Harbor Freight, the man-store. We treated ourselves to a drive-through lunch from Steak and Shake, and an in-car picnic in an empty restaurant parking lot with a space near the river and a tree for shade.

After our picnic we drove down to Port Canaveral to visit one of our fishing spots and got to see one of the Disney Cruise Line ships.

There were people fishing but when my husband attempted to use the restroom the doors were locked. (That seems kind of mean)

Instead of retracing our route from Sam’s Club to the port, we changed it up and took different roads. It seems when we don’t get out much, we appreciate familiar scenery more. This time when we pulled into Sam’s Club parking lot the line was moving so we parked and went in.

This was the first time I wore the homemade mask a friend gave me. A lot of people were wearing masks which I guess is good but I really dislike wearing one. God bless our healthcare workers who wear them for hours and hours.

We quickly picked up the items on my list and checked out. At the exit I asked the door manager if I would have to wait in line if I was picking up an online order. Good news! I would simply need to come to the exit door and would be allowed in. I think I will place online orders until the need for masks is over.

This morning I realized I didn’t pick up ground beef at Sam’s Club. It wasn’t on my list. So much for shopping quickly. My husband drove me to Publix Supermarket and I donned my mask. Can someone tell me how to wear a mask without fogging up ones glasses? I ended up taking off my glasses.

After choosing two packages of ground beef (Man am I ever going to stock up when it is on sale, it cost a lot!) I proceeded to the dairy aisle and came to a socially distanced, face to face with an older lady wearing a mask. She looked familiar, like a friend I haven’t seen in a long time. She was staring at me as I stared at her. I yanked off my mask with a grin and said Jan? It was her! We had a short chat and promised to get together if this crisis ever goes away.

In my prayer time this morning, I was feeling pretty whiny about the isolation. I felt convicted about my attitude. Seriously, I couldn’t willingly give 30 days of my life to have extra time to spend in God’s word? As a family we have been doing an online study on the names of God. Rebekah, our daughter is doing a study on the book of Nehemiah and I just started a study of the book of Job.

Like so many, we have found blessings in this pause even as we grieve for those who are suffering. I am reminded of Isaiah43:19

Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.

I'm a winnerAfter my retirement, I decided to re-learn the canning and preserving skills I learned from my mother but hadn’t practiced for twenty years. I titled the blog Old Things R New to chronicle my experience.  Since then I have been blessed to have six other bloggers join me, DiVoran Lites, Bill Lites,  Judy Wills, Louise Gibson, Janet Perez Eckles and Melody Hendrix

In addition to blogging, I work as the publicist/marketer/ amateur editor and general  “mom Friday” for my author daughter, Rebekah Lyn. I also manage her website, Rebekah Lyn Books  where we frequently host the best in up and coming authors.

My 2019 goal is to use my love of photographs and words to be an encourager on social media. You can visit Real Life Books and Media You Tube Channel if you would like to view some of the mini-videos I have created for our church, Gateway Community in Titusville, Fl.

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Daily Life During Covid-19 Part 6

11 Apr

Passover Week

On the Porch

Onisha Ellis

So much has happened this week it is hard for me organize my thoughts. Some impressions I am still internalizing. Maybe writing this blog will help to gel my thoughts.

For only the second time in history, the Jews in Israel have been told to stay inside their homes during a portion of Passover. Many found this to be significant.

If you aren’t aware of the history of Passover, it began in ancient times when the people of Israel were captive slaves in Egypt. The Egyptian Pharaoh refused to set them free even though God sent plagues to torment him. The final plague would take the lives of every first born unless the blood of a slaughtered spring lamb was painted on the doorposts of their homes.

From Wikipedia:

the Book of Exodus, God helped the Israelites escape from slavery in ancient Egypt by inflicting ten plagues upon the Egyptians before the Pharaoh would release the Israelite slaves. The last of the plagues was the death of the Egyptian first-born. The Israelites were instructed to mark the doorposts of their homes with the blood of a slaughtered spring lamb and, upon seeing this, the spirit of the Lord knew to pass over the first-born in these homes, hence the English name of the holiday.

Tuesday, we decided to join with the Jewish tradition and pray for the passing of the Coronavirus. Coincidence or God that all week the virus models of deaths has changed downward almost daily?

Passover occurs with the full moon. Tuesday night the news said the moon would be pink tinged. My daughter, Rebekah and I decided to drive down to the river for a better view. I love the river at night, especially with a breeze. It is peaceful yet empowering. The moon looked white to me but it was beautiful.

The lights across the river are Kennedy Space center to the left probably Cape Canaveral Air Base to the right.

Wednesday we treated ourselves to dinner out. I am seriously tired of cooking. Dinner out was take out from the Moonlight Drive-In. I had planned to eat there but Rebekah and her dad voted to eat in the car by river. That evening we watched a live stream Seder. Rebekah participated in one last year, but this was our first experience. It was intriguing.

For a couple of days, my husband had been going through what I call a rough patch. I felt that if I could get him out of the house, he might perk up. Our daughter agreed to drive. Guess where we went? That’s right, the river. I thank God for the river. We found an unoccupied pavilion and covered the table with a nylon picnic blanket to protect us from germs than may have been lurking. It was warm but the breeze was nice and steady. The trip perked him up, his breathing settled down and we had a good evening.

The part of Passover week that I have been processing is what we did on Wednesday at noon. We received an email earlier in the week suggesting that as Joshua led the Jewish people to march around the city of Jericho for six days, then on the seventh day blow their shofars and shout, thus bringing down the city’s walls, that we could call out to the Lord in a similar manner to end the virus.

This was way outside of our comfort zone, but we felt we should participate. We downloaded a Shofar app onto our phones. Our daughter suggested we do this in our local hospital parking lot.

When we arrived at the hospital, there was a group of around 10-15 gathered. With social distancing in mind, we didn’t join them. (Also we are a family of fairly introverted people) As the clock moved to noon, the group began blowing their shofars, (They had the real thing and they were loud) We activated our apps and sounded the shofar and prayed. We prayed for the passing of the virus and claimed God’s glory and fire. We shouted victory over the virus as well as over the evils the have spread over the earth, lying, greed, murder, hatred and deception, I have never felt such emotion flooding my soul.

Matthew 18:20 says “For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.” He was there.

And then we got into our cars and went home.

I spent Good Friday enjoying messages from various churches and making a low carb chocolate raspberry cheesecake. As I write this blog I am listening to a live stream of Handel’s Messiah – Easter Concert with The Tabernacle Choir.

I almost forgot! Since our churches are not meeting physically our church staff made up these simple Easter bags and the pastor dropped them off at homes today. I was thrilled to discover a small bottle of hand sanitizer. I texted him that it was the best ever Easter bag!

Treats like these are usually taken to members who are homebound or as we used to say, shut-ins. We are all shut-ins now!

May your Easter be joyful.

UPDATE Florida Stay at Home allows for outdoor activity as long as social distancing is followed.

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Good News That Never Has a Downside

7 Apr

On the Porch

Onisha Ellis

Last night I began to hear positive news about the Coronavirus. It was exciting. Sadly I also heard the news of a friend’s mother passing a week after her father in law and another friend whose mother was taken by ambulance to hospital with pneumonia.

I am thankful there is one piece of good news that never has a downside. The news of the empty tomb. And because of the empty tomb we have hope. God had a plan!

“For all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; and all of us wither like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.” (Isaiah 64:6)

“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)

“He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit.” (Titus 3:5)

“For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.” (Romans 5:10)

“For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God.” (1 Peter 3:18a)

“That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.” (Romans 10:9-10)

Our churches are closed but the message of Jesus cannot be contained.

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