Tag Archives: #amblogging

South of the Border~Part 5

13 May

A Slice of Life

 Bill Lites

Bill Lites

 

Once all the dedication ceremonies were over, it was time for the teams to relax and celebrate. OSM had made arrangements for a cookout at the John 3:16 Church and we were all ready to do our part to help eat everything in sight. This was another opportunity for the entire group to praise God for His continued love, protection and provision toward us during this entire project

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After we finished eating, several of us headed over to the Carpenter’s Shop to help assemble and setup some new equipment that had been recently donated. The young boys were especially excited about the new tools, and were wanting to know what each tool did and when they were going to get to work in the shop.

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Early Saturday morning, after breakfast at the hotel, we packed up the vans and started the long trip back toward San Antonio. Our caravan took a short break just before we got to the border to visit the market in Piedras Negras, where I bought DiVoran a 4-foot long Rain Stick. It makes the most wonderful sound (like falling rain), and she still uses it every Sunday, when she sings with the Praise Team, during our morning church service here in Titusville.

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Our border crossing was uneventful this time, and we arrived at the Kennedy ranch in time to enjoy a real American dinner (our first in a week) and boy was that a great meal. Some of us took time to wash some really dirty clothes, and enjoy the quiet surroundings of the ranch, until it was time to head back to the Retreat Center for a good night’s rest.

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 Sunday, after breakfast, we drove a short distance over to attend a church service at a Cowboy Church (I can’t remember exactly where), which was quite an eye opener for me. It had to be one of the most informal and unusual church services I’ve ever attended. They really know how to praise the Lord in that church, and without any pretensions.

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 Then we started working our way toward the airport by spending a short time at the beautiful River Walk, where we had a great lunch at one of the many nice restaurants located there along the San Antonio River. By the time we finished lunch, it was time to head for the airport, say our final good-bye’s, and get checked in for our flight back to Orlando.

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I can say, I feel like that was one of the most rewarding weeks I have ever spent in my life. There is nothing like seeing the appreciative look on people’s faces when you hand them the keys to a house that they would never have been able to afford, or that they ever had expected someone would give them. If you can, you should try it sometime. I guarantee you will love the experience, and it will absolutely change your life forever. Our God is good, all the time.

—–The End—–

  

If you, your church or civic group would like to help the OSM with their ministry to the needy people of Mexico and Haiti, you can visit them for details on their website at www.onlyaservant.org or call them at 830-228-4809.

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The Bank Robbery~Part 2

12 May

Guest Post

Norma Rowe

Norma head shot

 

After I heard the voice telling me to leave the vault and go into the bank lobby with the robber, I went. He had demanded that two girls go, but I was the only one who did. He didn’t ask for another one. He, instead, came with me to the teller window and told me to put money in bags. Even though he kept telling me to hurry up, I carefully included the “bait” money (marked bills). At one point I saw a small red light flashing, which indicated that the alarm had been activated. I remembered what he had said about blowing someone’s head off, so I tried to conceal the light. I failed, but fortunately he didn’t see me or the light. I then came to the vault-teller’s box, a large one, which required two different keys. I couldn’t open that one, and by then he was making me very nervous so I called to the Operations Officer to come out from the vault and open it for me. He grudgingly came and got it open but now he had to join us in filling the bags. I was toward the front of the building when I glanced up to see a police officer looking in the window. He was wearing a motorcycle helmet. Oh, good, I thought. The police are here so now we are safe.

I looked back at the thief and at that very instant he was firing at the officer. Up until that moment I had thought that maybe the gun wasn’t loaded but when I saw a flare come from the weapon, the hope of an unloaded gun vanished! My first instinct was to run toward the police officer, so I could be out of danger, but I discarded that idea thinking the guy could easily shoot me in the back. I couldn’t stay where I was, in the middle of gunfire, but if I ran toward the back of the building to join the others I had to pass him and he could easily grab me to use as a hostage. Again, something inside of me was assuring me that I could run by him and he wouldn’t grab me. I did.

As I ran back, the O.O. who had ducked behind a desk, kept yelling, “Get down, get down!” I finally ducked behind another desk but he said, “not there, here.” He wanted me where he was because it was closer to the vault, but once I hit the floor I couldn’t stand on my own two feet again. It was like that “shield,” that “armor” I had felt before, had lifted, so he stretched out his arm and I stretched out mine and he grabbed my hand and pulled me across the floor and we got on our feet to run into the vault to barricade ourselves but my legs wouldn’t support me. I was nicknamed “rubber legs” after that. One of our customers, a retired bank manager, saw what was happening and came out and helped the O. O. lift me off the floor and drag me into the vault with them. We closed the door, and barricaded it with a metal cabinet nearby.

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South of the Border~Part 4

6 May

A Slice of Life
 Bill Lites

Work had progressed great the first two days, but then Wednesday night the rains came, and the dry parched earth turned into a quagmire. That kind of rain is seldom seen in that part of Mexico, and the rainwater does not sink into the soil there like it does in our Florida sand.

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Even though the rain had stopped by Thursday morning, when we arrived at the work site, the mud really slowed down the day’s operations. Some of our vehicles got stuck in the mud more than once that day, and much valuable time and effort was spent pulling them free.

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The mud was so thick that we had to be very careful walking through it because it would suck the shoes right off your feet, and your next step would be in that mud in your stocking feet. An added disadvantage of all that mud was that thick globs of it stuck to the bottoms of our shoes, and we tracked it into the houses every time we came in, and more time was required to scrape it off the floors. This also got in the way of any activity going on above the floor level.

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Because of the high summer temperatures and “zero” humidity, once the rain stopped, the area dried up fairly rapidly. Then once the water had dried up, the deep mud ruts hardened into sharp ridges in the streets, which could cut a truck or van tire if the driver wasn’t careful where he was going.

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In spite of the rain and all that mud, the work pretty much got back to normal. We were able to continue with most all of the unfinished work on the two houses (doors, windows and final trim) and included getting the mud and debris cleaned up. The electrical lights and switches were wired up and tested, so everything was ready for a final inspection. This allowed us to completely finish the two houses by the afternoon of the third day.

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On Friday, we drove to the building site, and once the final inspections were completed, and the work areas were cleaned up, we gathered the colonia (unregulated settlement) dwellers at one, and then the other of the new houses, for a prayer and dedication service for each. Pastor Santos (Pastor of a local church in Nava as well as the John 3:16 church there in the colonia) officiated at these services with our own Diana translating his words for us.

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The Mayor of Nava and his wife attended the dedication service, to praise OSM and all the team members for their continued service and support of their city of Nava and especially the people of this colonia.

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And then, each team had their picture taken, standing in front of the completed house they had built, to remind us all of just how much can be accomplished when a group of people get together and put their effort into a worthy project.

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One of the most memorable and gratifying things I have ever been honored to be called upon to do, was when I was selected to be the one who presented Jose, Estela and their family with the keys to their brand new house. They were overwhelmed with gratitude, and it was a special thrill for me too!

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Of course, not every family in the colonia can have a new house today, but it has always been OSM’s goal to provide this kind of housing for as many of the colonia families as possible, as workers and funds became available.

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By 2010, OSM had provided almost 100 houses for Nava’s colonia families. Unfortunately, in the last few years, the drug wars and terrorist activities in many parts of Mexico (including the Nava area) have curtailed the house building activities for OSM, along with many other organizations who participate in these, and other much needed humanitarian projects.

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—–To Be Continued—–

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The Bank Robbery~Part 1

5 May

Guest Blogger

Norma Garcia Rowe

Norma head shot

Norma is our newest guest blogger. She has an amazing story to share and I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did. Be sure to take a look at her bio in the menu above~Onisha

My name is Norma Garcia Rowe. I was born and raised in Cuba and immigrated to the United States in 1964.

On May 17, 1972, the bank where I worked was held up. It was mid-morning, right after we opened. I was on the telephone with a client when I noticed the Assistant Manager, waving at me trying to tell me to get off the phone. He was standing near a clean-cut man who wore a sport coat and a narrow brimmed hat. At first I didn’t know what he 1wanted, but then I saw that the man was holding a gun against his chest so that none of the others tellers or the customers could see it. I learned later it was a 45-caliber handgun. I immediately dropped the phone into the cradle and got up to join the others.

Apparently, he had been waiting for me to get off the phone so that I couldn’t alert anyone because the minute I hung up he led us all, employees, and customers, to the back of the building where the vault was located. He was walking on the lobby side, and we were walking on the inside of the counter. I remember pressing the silent alarm when the man wasn’t looking in my direction. It was then that he yelled out, “If anyone presses the alarm I’ll blow your head off.” Well, too late – everybody had done it by then. The alarm went directly to the police department and to the bank’s Loss and Investigations Department, which worked in conjunction with LAPD. He got all sixteen of us huddled up in the vault. Back then, there were no computers. Records were kept in files and those files were put in boxes so, this vault was nothing but a storage room and it couldn’t have been much bigger than 12’x12’. There were shelves, wide enough to store those boxes, from floor to ceiling against three walls and back-to-back in the middle of the room, serving as a partition, leaving one aisle on each side. We kept most of the money in a metal cabinet by the door.

Of course, the man didn’t know that, so he kept saying, “Two of the girls that work here go out and collect all the money and put it in bags.” No one moved. We were all afraid for our lives. I hid behind a tall young man that worked as a part-time teller hoping he would shield me if the guy decided to start shooting.

I was one of the girls throw up in a wastebasket. I also remember that one of them was in such state of fear that she climbed up on a shelf and lay there, shaking all over, her eyes open almost to the point of bulging. I was scared too but felt so bad for her that I remember whispering, “Don’t worry, everything is going to be all right.”

The robber kept repeating, “Two girls go get the money” The least of my intentions at that time was to be one of those girls but then something unexpected happened.

Suddenly, I heard an audible voice. I didn’t hear it with my ears, but somewhere in my forehead. It was a commanding voice, saying, “You go, nothing is going to happen to you.”

At that moment, I felt strong and fearless. Taking a step forward I said, “I’ll go.” It was as if suddenly I had been vested with armor or a shield and I knew that truly, nothing was going to happen to me.

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Minute Meditations~3

3 May

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

JUDY

                                                    

TRUST…..

What does that word mean to you? The New World dictionary defines trust as: firm belief or confidence in the honesty, integrity, reliability, justice, etc. of another person or thing. A secondary definition is: confident expectation. How does that fit your definition?

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Have you ever trusted someone with a “secret” only to have that secret spread around and get out of control? How did that make you feel? Did you feel like you could “trust” that person with anything personal again? Most likely not.

My brother, Bill, wrote his thoughts on this:

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Minute Meditations~2

26 Apr

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

                     

What is happiness? Or better yet…..what is your IDEA of what happiness is? Is it just a state of mind? Is our happiness determined by our circumstances?

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A pastor said once, that when we are God’s child, happiness is what resides in our hearts and minds always, and that joy or sorrow can’t really touch it; that the circumstances where we find ourselves do NOT determine whether we are happy or not….we have God’s abiding happiness within us.

Joy
Sorrow

 

Filling our hearts with God’s love gives us permanent happiness, that allows us to be happy, or content, in whatever situations we find ourselves.

My brother, Bill, wrote about this very thing. These are his thoughts:

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Can we see just how God wants us to look to Him for our happiness? No matter what happens, with God in our hearts, we can depend upon Him to give us the answers we seek to ALL our earthly problems. He is true and faithful to His word.

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New Series~Minute Meditations

19 Apr

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy WillsJUDY

                                              

I would like to do something a little different for a few weeks. Hope you like my musings.

As I have mentioned before – and he has posted – my brother worked in the space industry all of his career. He has shared so many interesting stories of his work. Recently, one that has impressed me the most is that, whenever one of our space shuttles docked with the International Space Station, it would “nudge” the ISS back into its orbit.

ISS  If that didn’t happen, then eventually the ISS would fall into the earth’s atmosphere and burn up. Did you know that? I didn’t. And it seems like such a waste to have spent all that time and money to make the ISS, and then stop the space program. Oh well.In any case, if you are old enough to remember the Challenger disaster,

Bill wrote a “Minute Meditation” about it, and I would like to quote it here:

Minute Meditation Challenger Bill Lites

So, even in tragedy, as Bill stated, we can know that God is there, is in control, and we can trust Him in all our ways. That is such a hopeful and reassuring thought for me. For you, as well, I pray.

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Do you live with confidence, joy, and peace? Answer these few questions to find out.

18 Apr

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South of the Border~Part 1

15 Apr

A Slice of Life

Bill LItes

Bill Stars Plane

 

In the summer of 2002 our church here in Titusville, FL sponsored a construction project and trip to northeastern Mexico, to build houses for homeless people living in that area. A Christian family organization by the name of Only A Servant Ministries, Inc. (OSM) in San Antonio, Texas organizes the building project trips. Once the trip plans and funding have been finalized with a given visiting group, OSM coordinates locating the building sites, securing all the necessary local Mexican permits, and arranging for power and water to each building site. Then they clear the designated sites, dig the foundations, pour the slabs and buy all the necessary building materials for each visiting team they have arriving to build a very basic 16’ x 20’ house.   All of this is done ahead of the arrival date of the visiting groups, so that no time is taken away from the actual building time. They also schedule travel time to and from the building sites in Mexico, and arrange for all transportation, housing and food requirements for the visiting groups. It’s a huge coordination effort that they somehow managed to accomplish, sometimes as many as12-15 times each year. 1                                    For our particular trip, 23 of us left Orlando, FL on Saturday, and flew to San Antonio, TX where we were met by our OSM hosts, the Kennedy family. After we found all of our luggage, we had a quick lunch (nothing is very quick when you are dealing with 25 people) and then headed for the Singing Hills Retreat Center (about 45 minutes northeast of San Antonio), where we would spend the night. 2 After settling in, we had time to visit the Kennedy’s ranch compound (about 30 minutes from the retreat center), where we did some relaxing, and then some of our group helped prepare dinner for the large gathering (the Kennedys had 10 of their 13 children at home for that meal). After dinner, we had a wonderful time getting acquainted with everyone, before we headed back to the Retreat Center for a good night’s rest. 3 After breakfast Sunday morning, we traveled to the nearby Natural Bridge Park and attended a short church service in the park. After the church service, we toured the Natural Bridge Caverns, which were discovered in 1960, and get their name from the limestone slab bridge, which was formed when a sinkhole collapsed below it, and now spans the cavern’s entrance. These caverns are beautiful and said to be some of the largest commercial caverns in the United States. 4 After our tour, we stopped for lunch at the Alamo Café, and then took time for a short stroll on the famous River Walk which it is said evolved, over the years, from the aftermath of a 1921 flood of the San Antonio River. After that beautiful experience, we headed back to the Kennedy ranch for some free time. 5 Then, after dinner, our group all gathered around so Ken could give us a detailed pre-trip briefing about what we could expect during the next week’s activities. After the briefing, we were free to enjoy the serenity of the ranch and its surroundings before heading back to the Retreat Center and bed.

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—–To be continued—–

 

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Why should I use natural cleaning products

14 Apr

Lavendar Lydia's Herbals

Last year I began to take a serious interest in herbal remedies and In June I found Lydia of Lydia’s Herbals asked if she would allow me to interview her. The interview has been a popular stop on the blog. If you would like to read it, her is the LINK. This year my interest has turned to making my own cleaning and personal care products, so I contacted Lydia and asked if you would stop by  and share her knowledge.

So, welcome back to Old Things R New, Lydia. What is your take on natural cleaners?

You may wonder what all the hype about natural cleaners is. First of all, it isn’t just a fad. It is something that everyone should research and make wise choices for their family. There are very real dangers lurking on the cleaning products aisle of the supermarket.

Here is some research on cleaning product choices.
The Environmental Protection Agency lists our homes as one of the top 5 environmental risks to our health. The causes include insulation and weatherproofing, which effectively seal toxins into our homes. These emissions come from building materials, electronics, grocery bags, paper towels- but the two main sources are cleaning supplies and body care products.

Why does this matter?

Environmental toxins build up in the body, and can lead to many problems. One of the main problems is Sick Building Syndrome, which is directly linked to poor indoor air quality. It causes congestion, nervous system disorders, allergies, asthma, fatigue, and irritation of the eyes, nose and throat. This is especially problematic for children, because their exposure is greater than that of adults. They spend more time sleeping, playing on the floor, and putting items in their mouths. All of these activities contribute to a heavy toxin load.

So what can we do about this?

There are many ways to reduce the toxic load in your home. Here are several suggestions:

  • Buy used- used items have already released most of their toxins, so they won’t release them into your home.
  • Open your windows- This allows fresh air in and toxic air out.
  • Get a houseplant- houseplants have been shown to filter out toxins in the air, and they don’t have a limit of toxins that they can absorb. The most effective plants are ferns and palms, but rubber plant, English ivy, ficus, peace lily, mums and daisies are also good choices.
  • Make your own cleaners- we will be discussing how later in this post.
  • Make your own body care products- it is quite simple, and there are many recipes online for all kinds of beauty products, including perfume and make-up.

So, lets get started by learning about the ingredients used to make household cleaners.

  • Baking soda- an alkaline scrubber, it has a pH of 8.1 . Most supermarkets sell big boxes in the baking aisle.
  • Washing soda- a much stronger alkaline with a pH of 11, it needs to be handled with care and only by adults. It is found in the laundry aisle at most supermarkets. ( Here is a link to Amazon to give you a visual~Onisha)
  • Vinegar- Plain distilled white vinegar. It is an acid. Supermarkets sell gallon jugs. Don’t worry, you will use that much.
  • Borax- a naturally occurring mineral, it is also alkaline with a pH of 9.5. It is found in the laundry aisle at most supermarkets.
  • Liquid vegetable/castile soap- I just make my own, but a good brand is Dr. Bronnor’s. (Amazon link)
  • Essential oils- I get mine from Mountain Rose Herbs. Good oils to have on hand for cleaning include lavender, lemon, eucalyptus, tea tree, orange and peppermint. If you have small children, you should not use eucalyptus or peppermint. Eucalyptus has ketones, which can cause liver damage in small children. Peppermint has caused breathing problems in children under 3, so use caution. Always research an essential oil before using!
  • Distilled water- This works best in the recipes because it has all the minerals and bacteria removed.
  • Spray bottles- you will need one spray bottle for each spray you make. Do not reuse spray bottles from other cleaning supplies or you could end up with a deadly reaction. I get them in the beauty section at the supermarket.
  • Labels- Address labels or masking tape work well. I usually just use a permanent marker directly on spray bottles.

Some tips for using your cleaners- Acid based cleaners work best on dissolving mineral build up and soap scum, while alkaline cleaners remove stains, odors and grease. ( I had no idea what would  make a cleaner acid based so I emailed Lydia. The answer was a real head slap for me…. vinegar!)

Thank you, Lydia for the excellent information. I added my comments above in parenthesis and italics.

The Amazon links may or may not be affiliate links. I am never sure if they work, but if they do, I may earn a small fee. if you buy from Amazon after clicking on one of the links.

I have begun collecting recipes for natural products on our Rebekah Lyn Books Pinterest board or if you are not a Pinterest fan, here is a LINK to one of my favorite sites. I have begun using a shampoo made with castile soap and coconut milk. For the first two weeks my hair felt gummy but I was expecting that and stayed with the natural shampoo. Now I love it and can’t imagine using anything else. Making the shampoo is fun, knowing I am not polluting my body….. priceless.

Be sure to visit Lydia on her website

 Lydia’s Herbals 

Herbal health from a Christian Worldview

Click HERE 

Calendula

Calendula

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