Our Trip to Maui-Part 1

20 Aug

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy WilLS

REBLOG

In light of the catastrophic fires in Maui recently, I would like to reblog what I wrote about our trip to Maui back in 2004 (I wrote the series in 2013).  I do not want to be flippant about any of this, but this was such a special trip for us, and the devastation of Maui and Lahaina hurts our hearts.  Reblogging this series keeps alive to us the Maui we visited and explored and enjoyed.  I hope my readers will see the beauty of that lovely island along with us.

Here are some pictures of the “before and after” of Lahaina I retrieved from the internet.

Lahaina, Maui before the fires – Credit Google search and Leslie Prètot

Lahaina, Maui after the fires – credit Google search and Leslie Prètot

….Fred’s parents were living in an assisted-living facility in Washington State.  They had thought to make a trip to Maui for a week in a time-share owned by their youngest daughter and her husband, but needed/wanted some of the family to be with them to sort-of keep an eye on them.  Since Fred and I were retired at the time, we volunteered for that job.  

Two weeks before we were scheduled to depart, Fred’s mother, already afflicted with Alzheimer’s Disease, had a major set-back.  She was placed in the Special Care Unit of the facility, where there were trained staff to care for her.

Since Fred’s dad had been caring for her by himself – and he was encouraged not to visit her for a few weeks so she would become adjusted to her new home – we decided to go ahead with our plans.  Frankly, he needed the rest from all that stress.  

So Fred and I flew to Seattle, rented a car and dropped our luggage at the hotel where we would be staying for just one night.  We drove to Shelton, an hour’s drive away, and spent the rest of the day with Fred’s father, sister and her husband.  We three (Fred, his dad, and I) then drove back to Seattle for the night, as our flight out was quite early the next morning.

In spite of being on the West Coast, the non-stop flight was really long to Maui.  We arrived at the Kahului airport in the capital of Maui.

We had arranged for a rental car, picked it up, stopped by the Costco nearby and picked up groceries for the mornings we would be there.  We planned on partaking of all the wonderful island foods for lunches and dinners.

~~~~More to Come~~~~

Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years .

  Judy has always been involved with music, both playing the piano and singing. Always interested in exercise, she was an aerobic dancing instructor, as well as a piano teacher for many years, and continues to faithfully exercise at home.

After moving to Central Florida, she served as a church secretary for nearly nine years.Her main hobby at this point in time is scanning pictures and 35mm slides into the computer. She also enjoys scrapbooking.She and her husband have two married daughters and four grandchildren, including grandtwins as well as a great-grandson and a great-granddaughter. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

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2023 Road Trip-Part 1

16 Aug

A Slice of Life

Bill Lites

Day 1 – July 15: 

 At 9:00 this morning I said goodbye to my wife, DiVoran, who wished me “Safe Travels” and our cat Thea (who wanted to go with me) and headed north, out of Titusville, FL on I-95 to begin my 2023 Road Trip. I was driving my 2006 Dodge Grand Caravan that had made my last two Road Trips so enjoyable and comfortable as it allowed me to take all the daily necessities I was used to with me.

Photo Credit: Bill Lites

My first stop today was a visit to the Living Legends of Auto Racing Museum located in the Sunshine Park Mall in South Daytona, FL.  This museum is filled with a revolving collection of racing cars from many of the different types of auto racing dating from the early days of auto racing.  Most of the cars were raced by well-known drivers who have been part of creating the Legends of Auto Racing.  The museum’s collection of signed photographs and auto racing memorabilia is very overwhelming.  The museum also hosts periodic local Race Car Shows & Parades along highway A1A in Daytona Beach.  Check out the Parade Video on the internet.

Photo Credit: https://yahoo.com/Living+Legends+of+Auto+Raing+Museum

Continuing north on I-95 the next museum I visited was the Classic Car Museum located in St. Augustine, FL.  The 1950s Gas Station replica at the front of this museum started my memory clock ticking, and as I entered the museum the memories just kept coming.   I was impressed with their oldest automobile, an 1895 Rochet Snyder Roadster that has been beautifully restored for all to enjoy.  This large museum displays 80+ beautiful classic cars and sports cars dating from the early 1900s to the 1980s.  They also have a large selection of photos and related auto memorabilia from over the years.

Photo Credit: Bill Lites

My next stop was to visit the Brumos Auto Collection located in the Jacksonville Beach, FL area.  This large collection consists of many vintage open cockpit racers (oldest; 1894 Peugeot) that competed over the years, and Porsche race cars that were raced in many major racing events from 1953-2017.  There is also detailed information on each of the race cars on display in this marvelous collection.

Photo Credit: Bill Lites

After passing over the St. Johns River and crossing the border into Georgia, I stopped for a photo at the Florida-Georgia Railway Museum located in Kingsland, GA.  This museum is housed in the renovated 1915 former sawmill building and is also the home of the Kingsland Station Players who perform there on a regular basis. It is also the central train station where one can buy a ride on an 80-minute open-air sight-seeing train ride or have dinner in their famous Silver Tureen Dining car train ride.  I didn’t have time for any of those options, so just took this photo and was on my way. 

Photo Credit: Bill Lites

It was another hour drive north on I-95 to where I stopped to visit the Mighty 8th Air Force Museum located in Pooler, GA.  I had visited this museum a few years ago, and wanted to see how they were doing on the restoration of their B-17G (City of Savannah).  Representing the 5000th airplane processed thru Hunter Field, Ga in 1944, it took some 60,000 man-hours (7.6 years) of dedicated volunteer work, but the City of Savannah has now been beautifully restored to its 1945 war-time configuration and is open to the public for review.  My hat is off to the fine effort this museum has expended to restore this WWII warbird.

Photo Credit: https://yahoo.com/Mighty+8th+Air+Force+Museum

Now it was another hour or so north on I-95 passing over the Savannah River and crossed the border into South Carolina before I arrived at the North Charlston Fire Museum.  This was another fine museum I had visited on another road trip and wanted to see their great collection of antique fire trucks and firefighting equipment again.  Sadly, they were closed by the time I got there, so I just took this photo and set out to find my motel for the night.

Photo Credit: Bill Lites

As I was heading for the motel, I passed a Waffle House, and since it was late, I decided to just stop and have one of their 2-egg breakfast meals that comes with hashbrowns, sausage links, and toast.  Yuuum!  I can enjoy a breakfast meal any time of the day, and this one hit the spot with a hot cup of Earl Gray tea.  After that delicious meal, I found my motel, got checked in and recorded my days activities.

Photo Credit: https://yahoo.com/2-egg+with+hashbrowns+%26+link+sausage+Waffle+House&  

—–To Be Continued—–

Bill is a retired Mechanical engineer living with his wonderful artist/writer wife, DiVoran, of 65 years in Titusville, Florida. He was born and raised in the Southwest, did a tour of duty with the U.S. Navy, attended Northrop University in Southern California and ended up working on America’s Manned Space Program for 35 years. He currently is retired and spends most of his time building and flying R/C model airplanes, traveling, writing blogs about his travels for Word Press and supporting his wife’s hobbies with framing, editing and marketing.  He also volunteers with a local church Car Care Ministry and as a tour guide at the Valiant Air Command Warbird Museum there in Titusville.  Bill has two wonderful children, two outstanding grandchildren, and a loving sister and her husband, all of whom also live in Central Florida, so he and DiVoran are rewarded by having family close to spend lots of quality time with.

One of Bill’s favorite Scriptures is:  John 10:10

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You Answer Our Prayers

14 Aug

My Take

DiVoran Lites

Psalm 65:5-6 TPT

You answer our prayers with amazing wonders

And with awe-inspiring displays of power.

You are the righteous God who helps us like a father.

Everyone everywhere looks to you,

For you are the confidence of all the earth,

Even to the farthest islands of the sea.

What jaw-dropping astounding power is yours!

You are the mountain maker who sets them all in one place

Photo Credit:Pixabay

DiVoran has been writing for most of her life. Her first attempt at a story was when she was seven years old and her mother got a new typewriter. DiVoran got to use it and when her dad saw her writing he asked what she was writing about. DiVoran answered that she was writing the story of her life. Her dad’s only comment was, “Well, it’s going to be a very short story.” After most of a lifetime of writing and helping other writers, DiVoran finally launched her own dream which was to write a novel of her own. She now has her Florida Springs trilogy and her novel, a Christian Western Romance, Go West available on Amazon. When speaking about her road to publication, she gives thanks to the Lord for all the people who helped her grow and learn.  She says, “I could never have done it by myself, but when I got going everything fell beautifully into place, and I was glad I had started on my dream.”

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62 Years and Counting-Part 5

13 Aug

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

Day five of our seven-day cruise was another day at sea.  Again we spent most of the day walking the ship, eating and resting.  Up on the Cabanas deck, there is the swimming pool and places for the sun-worshipers.

Above the pool is a huge screen, and it is usually running either a movie, or something for the children to enjoy.

There is also an area that is just for adults – no one under 18 is allowed to swim, sun-bathe or eat in that area.  It is quiet, mostly, and very relaxing. (some of the following pictures are from other cruises we’ve taken, not necessarily on the Fantasy)  Also on that deck is a salad and wrap stand,

a hamburger stand,

a pizza stand, 

a dessert stand,

 and the soft ice cream stand, as well as the soft-drink fountain drink dispensers.  So it’s kind of nice to get an ice cream and just sit and people watch.

The final day of the cruise takes us to Disney’s island in the Bahamas – Castaway Cay.

 We have always – always – enjoyed our time on the island.  While we don’t participate in the water sports, we have frequently taken the glass-bottom-boat ride.  And occasionally we have rented bicycles and taken a ride around the island.  But this time, we did neither of those things. 

We just walked around and enjoyed being on the island.  Instead of walking our way down to the “adults only” beach, we took the tram – it’s a LOOOONG walk.  It actually looks like it could be a runway for a small airplane!  Fred was told once that it is about 8,000 feet long – and we’ve walked it before – there and back to the main part of the island.  Whew!

While we were down at that beach, it became time for lunch, and they were serving BBQ that day.  So we loaded up our plates and found a picnic table.  Some of the ship’s servers always go onto the island to help with the meal, and so we get to meet other servers.  This particular day, after sitting down, one of the servers came to talk with us.  I didn’t catch his name, but noticed that his name tag said he was from Brazil.  I asked him if he enjoyed working for Disney, and he replied, “it’s a job.”  He said the thing he missed the most was his child back in Brazil.  He had just come off a vacation, and was a bit homesick.

We talked about other things a bit, and then he needed to tend to something else in the eatery area.  And then we spoke with another server who was from the Philippines.

All that to say that, during our last night’s meal in the Royal Court Restaurant, I spotted that young man from Brazil, serving another table near ours.  Since I’m sure he sees hundreds of people each day and each different cruise, I was convinced he wouldn’t remember us or our conversation from that afternoon.  As we were leaving the restaurant, the doorway was next to a staging area for the servers.  This Brazilian young man was exiting the staging area, saw us, and his face split with the biggest grin!  So he did remember us!  Perhaps it was because we had taken the time to talk with him…who knows.  I didn’t see many other guests talking with the servers on the island.  Whatever it was, we had made a favorable impression on him.  It made my heart glad.

So that concludes our cruise.  We sailed overnight back to Port Canaveral, arriving in time to have a quick breakfast, then disembarking the ship and go through Customs.  It’s so convenient to have our car parked right there at the port – just hop in and drive that hour’s drive home!

Our bed felt VERY good that night!

~~~~~~~~~~The End~~~~~~~~~~

Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years .

  Judy has always been involved with music, both playing the piano and singing. Always interested in exercise, she was an aerobic dancing instructor, as well as a piano teacher for many years, and continues to faithfully exercise at home.

After moving to Central Florida, she served as a church secretary for nearly nine years.Her main hobby at this point in time is scanning pictures and 35mm slides into the computer. She also enjoys scrapbooking.She and her husband have two married daughters and four grandchildren, including grandtwins as well as a great-grandson and a great-granddaughter. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

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2023 Road Trip Prolog

9 Aug

A Slice of Life

Bill Lites

Every year for three years now, I have been researching and preparing a road trip that included time for visiting museums in different parts of Canada, but the Covid-19 pandemic has kept those borders to our northern neighboring country closed.  In 2020 I had planned to fly to Seattle, WA and renting a car to tour museums in several of our U.S.  northwestern states and British Columbia Canada.  That didn’t happen because of Covid-19 Canadian border restrictions. Bummer!

Image Credit: www.istockphoto.com/vector/facepalm

I ended up flying to Denver, CO and renting a car to tour museums in 6 states including Colorado, Wyoming, S. Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma.  Then in 2021 I had planned to fly to Detroit, MI and renting a car to tour museums in several our U.S. northeastern states and Toronto, Canada.  That didn’t happen because of Covid-19 Canadian border restrictions. I was really disappointed!

Photo Credit: Bill Lites

I ended up driving my van on my 2021 Road Trip on a long 17-day trip that included visits to museums in 13 states including FL, GA, SC, NC, VA, MD, PA, NY, OH, WV, KY, RN, AL, and back thru other parts of GA to FL.  Then in 2022, I had planned to fly to Buffalo, NY and renting a car to tour museums in several more of our U.S. northeastern states and Ottawa, Canada.  Again, that didn’t happen because of Covid-19 Canadian border restrictions.  I was beginning to wonder if the Canadians were ever going to open their borders to visitors!

Photo Credit: www.123rf.com/clipart-vector/disappointed

I

ended up driving my van on my 2022 Road Trip to visit museums in 11 states from Florida thru GA, AL, MS, TN, MO, IL, IN, OH, KY, TN, NC, and back thru other parts of GA to Florida.  Finally in 2023 Canada lifted their Covid-19 border restrictions so I planned to drive my van to visit museums on the route thru the 17 states shown in the photo below.

Photo Credit: Bill Lites

In my researching, I have found that Canada has some very interesting museums, and the one that piqued my interest for this year’s Road Trip was The Royal Aviation Museum in Winnipeg, MB Canada.   I am looking forward to seeing that museum’s great collection of beautifully restored military and civilian aircraft.  There are many other unique museums in Winnipeg that I want to see while I am in that city.  There are friends and relatives to visit along the way, as well as the many museums and points of interest in each state from my home in Florida to Canada and return.

—– To Be Continued—–

Bill is a retired Mechanical engineer living with his wonderful artist/writer wife, DiVoran, of 65 years in Titusville, Florida. He was born and raised in the Southwest, did a tour of duty with the U.S. Navy, attended Northrop University in Southern California and ended up working on America’s Manned Space Program for 35 years. He currently is retired and spends most of his time building and flying R/C model airplanes, traveling, writing blogs about his travels for Word Press and supporting his wife’s hobbies with framing, editing and marketing.  He also volunteers with a local church Car Care Ministry and as a tour guide at the Valiant Air Command Warbird Museum there in Titusville.  Bill has two wonderful children, two outstanding grandchildren, and a loving sister and her husband, all of whom also live in Central Florida, so he and DiVoran are rewarded by having family close to spend lots of quality time with.

One of Bill’s favorite Scriptures is:  John 10:10

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Covenant

7 Aug

My Take

DiVoran Lites

Genesis 9:12-15

And God Said: This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations;

I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth.

When I bring a cloud over the earth, the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud; and I will remember My covenant between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh.

DiVoran has been writing for most of her life. Her first attempt at a story was when she was seven years old and her mother got a new typewriter. DiVoran got to use it and when her dad saw her writing he asked what she was writing about. DiVoran answered that she was writing the story of her life. Her dad’s only comment was, “Well, it’s going to be a very short story.” After most of a lifetime of writing and helping other writers, DiVoran finally launched her own dream which was to write a novel of her own. She now has her Florida Springs trilogy and her novel, a Christian Western Romance, Go West available on Amazon. When speaking about her road to publication, she gives thanks to the Lord for all the people who helped her grow and learn.  She says, “I could never have done it by myself, but when I got going everything fell beautifully into place, and I was glad I had started on my dream.”

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62 Years and Counting-Part 4

6 Aug

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

The first two days were days at sea, so we just walked the ship, ate our way through each meal, and saw great entertainments.  

One of the entertainments was a ventriloquist.  What she did was familiar to us, and perhaps she was on another Disney cruise with us.  In any case, she was excellent.  I have a difficult time realizing how she could do all those different voices.  It was a hilarious performance, and we enjoyed it greatly.

The second show was a magician.  He was excellent in what he did, and again, we were greatly entertained.  Both shows included people brought up from the audience.  Seeing their willingness to participate – and some of the fun poked at them – was a highlight.

The third day was a day in Tortola, British Virgin Islands.  We had not planned any excursions around the island, so decided just to walk around a bit and see the island.  We had not been to Tortola before, so it was interesting.  Here are a few pictures we took that day.

The entrance to the shops at the port.

A statue of some dignitary – I didn’t get close enough to see who it was

The temperature was what I call “beastly hot” there, so we didn’t stay very long before returning to the ship.  We have really become accustomed to air conditioning!

That evening we watched a movie in the main, large, Walt Disney Theatre.  It was “The Little Mermaid,” starring Halle Bailey.  I know that “The Little Mermaid” Disney-style (as in animated) has been around for a very long time, but this is “live action” and many times, while watching it I thought, “how did they DO that???”  It is, truly amazing, and well worth watching.  Very well done.

The following day we docked at St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. 

 We had purchased a shore excursion for this island – a “bus” tour of the island.  The driver, David, told us that it was an air-conditioned bus – the faster he drove – the cooler it was!  As you might have guessed – not only was it NOT air-conditioned, it had no windows – all open air.  But it was an enjoyable trip, and we enjoyed David’s comments.

The excursion took us up to a high mountain, and at the top was a store that also considered itself the origin of the banana daiquiri.

Quite interesting – and if one wanted to purchase a banana daiquiri – they were available.  We didn’t partake.  We walked around the shop and outside some.  

Here is a picture of Fred and me beside the bus – David took the picture. 

 When I wanted to have one of him, he insisted that he take it beside me with Fred taking the picture.  He then said that when we got home, I could tell everyone he was my island boyfriend, and my husband took the picture!  Unfortunately, the picture didn’t take, so we don’t have that one.

Once we were back to the pier, we once again got on the ship, as it was “beastly hot” again.

We’ve just about decided that if we make another cruise to those islands again, it will NOT be in summer!  We have a difficult time tolerating that heat!

As a footnote here – the ship was offering the movie “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” but it was never at a time where we could see it – we were either at our scheduled eating time, or way after we had gone to bed.  So we have yet to see that one.

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

Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years .

  Judy has always been involved with music, both playing the piano and singing. Always interested in exercise, she was an aerobic dancing instructor, as well as a piano teacher for many years, and continues to faithfully exercise at home.

After moving to Central Florida, she served as a church secretary for nearly nine years.Her main hobby at this point in time is scanning pictures and 35mm slides into the computer. She also enjoys scrapbooking.She and her husband have two married daughters and four grandchildren, including grandtwins as well as a great-grandson and a great-granddaughter. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

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62 Years and Counting-Part 3

23 Jul

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

I forgot to mention last time that the servers in the restaurants “follow” those whose tables they serve from restaurant-to-restaurant each evening.  That’s a really nice aspect of the Disney ships – you get to know your servers, and they get to know you.  For instance, once we asked for Ginger Ale to drink that first night, Ginger Ale was waiting for us on the table every night after that – without us having to ask for it!  If we had wanted something else, they would have brought it to us.

Here is our main server – Amit – from India.  He brought our bread, took our order, and brought our food each night. 

And here is Roman – from Indonesia.  He mainly brought our drinks and kept us supplied with whatever we wanted/needed.  They were delightful young men.

Following the meal-change, the next endeavor was to get into our stateroom.  Now this was quite an adventure, as they had assigned us probably the last room on the ship – as it was at the very VERY back of the ship! 

And not only that, but it was a “handicap” room.  The normal “Oceanview” room (which is what we usually stay in) has about 204 square feet of space.  Because the room they assigned us was handicap accessible, it had about 246 square feet of space.  Considerably larger! 

 We didn’t have access to a veranda, but we had two very large port holes, lots of space for walking around in.  Here are the “key” cards we were issued – they were to be used to get in our stateroom, as well as to be presented whenever we left the ship or returned to it.

One of my most favorite parts of the Disney ships is the split bathroom.  One side has a sink, mirror, and the toilet.  The other side has a sink, mirror and the tub/shower…with a wall separating the rooms, and separate doors for each room.  Consequently, Fred and I can both get ready at the same time, with our own sink and mirror.  However, because this room is handicap accessible, it does not have the split bathroom; it only has one sink, and only a shower that is level with the floor.  I thought that would result in a very wet floor, but there are drains all around.  In that respect, very convenient.  But I really missed that split room!

I had said that I could probably eat anything I wanted because of all the walking to and from the stateroom!  Fred says it was about 1,100 feet from front to back – and we walked it many times during each day!  Here’s a shot of one of the long hallways – and this is only from mid-ship to the rear of the ship.  There was another one just like it from the front of the ship to mid-ships!

Something I’ve enjoyed – but never attempted to duplicate – was the way some of the passengers decorate their stateroom doors.  Here’s an example of that, and one that caught my eye.  They were very creative, I thought.

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

Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years .

  Judy has always been involved with music, both playing the piano and singing. Always interested in exercise, she was an aerobic dancing instructor, as well as a piano teacher for many years, and continues to faithfully exercise at home.

After moving to Central Florida, she served as a church secretary for nearly nine years.Her main hobby at this point in time is scanning pictures and 35mm slides into the computer. She also enjoys scrapbooking.She and her husband have two married daughters and four grandchildren, including grandtwins as well as a great-grandson and a great-granddaughter. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

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This is the Way to a Rich Life

22 Jul

Walking by Faith, Not by Sight

Janet Perez Eckles

Reblogged 7/22/23

Sweat made my hair stick to my neck as I shooed mosquitoes off me. Most would say, “What is a blind gal doing in this remote, rural area of Mindanao, Philippines?”

I confess, it was rough, yet my mission was to minister to those sweet people. But was I ever wrong!

I held the pastor’s wife’s arm as we walked down uneven dirt roads till we reached a small nipa hut where Mirna lived. No running water, no electricity, but joy was in her voice as she greeted us.

She drew near, gave me a hug and cupped my face in her thin hands. “Welcome, beautiful visitor,” she said as she led me to a metal bench under the scorching heat. “Sit here.”

The voices of hungry children surrounded us. Mirna’s routine was to offer them a bowl of rice, perhaps the only meal they would have all day. They sang songs, they ate, and she told them Bible stories. She filled their tummies with rice, but filled their heart with stories about Jesus.

I observed with my hearing and was moved by her joy and passion for her ministry. Before leaving to head to our next stop, I hugged her skinny, frail body. “You have so little, but you give so much,” I said.

“Oh, no,” she gave a shy giggle. “When you have Jesus, you have enough.”

I pondered on that assertion from someone who has materially nothing. But perhaps that’s the secret. Mirna possesses the richest spiritual portfolio, the wealth which she shares, and the fruit her life produces is evident.

“Thank you, Mirna,” I want to say. She taught me this truth: It’s not what we have, but what we know. We know when our possessions are gone, Jesus meets all our needs. When all falls apart, Jesus restores and renews. When loneliness knocks at the door, Jesus never leaves our side. When wounded, Jesus soothes and heals. When attacked, Jesus is the warrior who fights for us and conquers all.

Some questions to consider:

We all know these truths. But deep down, we still long for what we don’t have. Or lament what we do have. Whine about what annoys us. Complain about what disturbs us. And sadly, complete satisfaction is as elusive as snow in July.

Why is that? Perhaps answering these questions within the context in Luke 8 will reveal the reason:

  1. How tight does your heart hold on to God’s Word and His Promises? “Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved.” (Luke 8:11)
  2. How do you react when tough moments test your faith, your trust, and your convictions? “Those on the rock are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away. (Luke 8:13)
  3. What do you do with worry, with distractions of this world and financial burdens? “The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life’s worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature. (Luke 8:14)

No matter what happens, do you wake up with praises on your lips, God’s truth in your heart and trust in His promises for the day? “But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.” (Luke 8:15)

We may live in the nipa hut of imperfection, and the world might fall apart but we remain steady, secure and confident because we have the path to a rich, abundant life when we declare Jesus is indeed, enough!

Let’s Pray

Father, I confess I need to prepare the soil of my soul with deeper convictions, constant trust and determined to live inside the beautiful truth that You are, indeed, enough. In Jesus’ name.

What riches does your heart long for these days?

Bonus article: Check out this great article on today’s TOPIC.

Janet

Janet Eckles Perez

Some say she should be the last person to be dancing. Her life is summarized in this 3-minute video: http://bit.ly/1a8wGJR

Janet Perez Eckles’ story of triumph is marked by her work as an international speaker, #1 best-selling author, radio host, personal success coach and master interpreter. Although blind since 31, her passion is to help you see the best of life.

www.janetperezeckles.com

Bless This House

17 Jul

My Take

DiVoran Lites

Joel 2:25+

I will restore or replace for you the years that the locusts have eaten. You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied and praise the name of the Lord, your God, who has dealt wondrously with you, and my people shall never be put to shame, and afterward, I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters will dream dreams and see visions. 

DiVoran has been writing for most of her life. Her first attempt at a story was when she was seven years old and her mother got a new typewriter. DiVoran got to use it and when her dad saw her writing he asked what she was writing about. DiVoran answered that she was writing the story of her life. Her dad’s only comment was, “Well, it’s going to be a very short story.” After most of a lifetime of writing and helping other writers, DiVoran finally launched her own dream which was to write a novel of her own. She now has her Florida Springs trilogy and her novel, a Christian Western Romance, Go West available on Amazon. When speaking about her road to publication, she gives thanks to the Lord for all the people who helped her grow and learn.  She says, “I could never have done it by myself, but when I got going everything fell beautifully into place, and I was glad I had started on my dream.”

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