You make all things by Your great power and keep them existing and working by Your mighty Word.
You are exalted high above.
Every star and galaxy in the cosmos, yet You are also “the God of all mankind,” the great, personally present, personally involved God who loves, rescues, and takes care of all who trust You.
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.”
Recently, Fred and I took another cruise. I really enjoy cruising. I can’t really verbalize just why that is – is it because I grew up in a land-locked state? Is it because I like the motion of the boat/ship in the water? So many questions with so few answers.
I think the first time I was ever on a boat, it was a sailboat. We were living on Tyndall AFB, Florida (Panama City) at the time, just preparing to move to another base.
Photo Credit Google Search
We had spent an entire week cleaning the apartment we’d lived in for five years, and were exhausted.
Photo Credit Judy Wills – our half of the duplex
A fellow worker in Fred’s unit had use of a sailboat for the owners, and had the permission of the owners to take it out any time he wanted. So he took our family and two single men from the unit out our last day in town. It was wonderful! The sail was up, the wind was off the Gulf of Mexico, the sun was out – and there was no sound other than the wind and the waves. Peaceful and quiet. Just what we needed. Our Janet was an adventurous little thing in those days, and she was allowed to “steer” the boat at one point.
It took a while for me to convince Fred to just try cruising. His parents wanted to take a sea/land tour of Alaska, and wanted the family to go with them. The cruising part was only for three days, but that was enough for Fred to realize that today’s cruising was not anything like the troop ship he was on when he was a teenager.
And so, once Fred was able to experience “cruising”’ – he fell in love with it as much as I had. We have done some sailing with other cruise lines – Holland America (one of our favorites – especially the one to Alaska!) and Norwegian Cruise Line. We sailed to Bermuda with Holland America for our 50th Wedding Anniversary, with both daughters and their families with us. That was a great cruise!
However, we’ve discovered that our favorite cruise line is Disney. A major decision is that there is no casino on board the ship! No smoke-filled room one must walk through to get anywhere else on the ship! Yay! We like the fact that the children on board have activities that can keep them occupied nearly all day – and they love it! Disney ships have two smokestacks. Only one is actually a smokestack – the second one is built specifically for a place for the teenagers to be entertained. Amazing!
This most recent cruise we were on was our 10th with the Disney Cruise Line.
Photo credit Judy Wills – The Disney Wish
The fact it was our 10th Disney cruise kicks us up into a higher category of Disney travelers. We get a few more “perks” from now on that we didn’t have before. Just a few: we can check-in quicker and earlier; we have a free meal in Palo – one of the high-end restaurants on the ship that we normally avoid because of the cost. There are others, but I forget what they are at the moment.
~~~~~~~~~~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.
“This is the new me this year,” my friend said. “Healthy eating and I’m even joining the gym.”
I cheered her on.
And I found a great thing,” she added. “After I juice, I use the pulp to sprinkle on my salads…it’s actually delicious!”
Most discard the pulp, but not her. Instead, she put it to good use. God did the very same with me. When blindness struck at the age of 31, I thought my life was over. I thought I’d be relegated to stay inside my four walls, empty of achievements. And like useless pulp, ready to be dumped in the garbage disposal of life.
Did you ever have moments like that?
Life didn’t turn out like you thought, plans fell apart, and bad times turned your joy to soggy pulp. You were too weak to fight and to down to look up.
At one time or another, we all have experienced this. But when God is in the midst, He uses what little we may have, what flaws we display, what ugliness comes in, or how low we feel. He crafts something deliciously beautiful. That’s because no matter how we try to overcome our own battles and rise above our weaknesses, God is about to turn them into strengths. He uses our weaknesses to make great things. He molds sad circumstances to success. And He turns our losses into gain.
He did that with me. I had asked God to remove my blindness. He didn’t. Instead, He turned my physical blindness into 20/20 spiritual vision.
Paul’s Challenges
In a different way, Paul also encountered adversity, painful and unpleasant, He confessed:
“Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12: 8-10).
Paul delighted in His weaknesses…and God turned them to strength. He endured hardships…God pulled him through. He faced insults and unfairness…God brought about the victory. He was persecuted… God ushered him to freedom.
Where are you in this new year? Facing hard times? Drained by unexpected setbacks? God’s strength is being perfected in your weakness and inside your walls of tough times.
His strength might not be revealed by correcting the situation, but by changing your perspective to see His hand that removes anxiety, erases fear, and calms stressful moments. He’s at work so you can trust. He’s active so you can relax. And He’s crafting the solution that will strengthen your faith.
Let’s Pray
Father, the situation I face has drained my strength and my tears washed away the joy.
But I will cling to Your promise that Your power is being made perfect in my every weakness.
I shall trust You with every detail, and at every turn, I shall proclaim Your victory. In Jesus’ name.
Celebrate with me! My new release, Now I See: How God’s Amazing Grace Transforms the Deepest Pain to Shining Joy won the 2023 Memoir of the Year Golden Scroll Award.
You and I are only a click away. You can use this CONTACT FORM to leave your prayer request, make a comment, ask a question, or invite me to speak to your group. Or simply reply to this email.
I also invite you to visit my WEBSITE. You’ll find more inspirational blogs along with my story, books, and videos. You’ll also learn the passion and mission of JC Empowerment ministries.
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.
I awoke this morning feeling unsettled in my spirit. Last evening as I prepared for bed I felt prompted to boot up my computer and write something, but I had no idea what or why, and booting up the computer once I am done for the day is not a pleasant thought, so I didn’t.
Of course, this morning my mind began running through all the scenarios of what might happen today because I chose to ignore the prompting. Let me tell you when it comes to possible negative outcomes, I think my brain could challenge the newest AI bot.
In my life, I have wasted so much brain space and energy thinking about life’s “what ifs.”
My thoughts zipped from, was I supposed to write something, to share something, to read something then on to are my children ok and a lot more. All of this before I made it past the end of my bed.
Then I realized what I was doing and sharply commanded my brain to stop, just stop now. Every fear I felt was created in my mind. “What is going on with me?” I asked myself.
Then I remembered I had forgotten one of my life’s biggest lessons. But God.
I don’t think I would have emotionally survived a serious family conflict without taking every fearful thought and turning it into hope.
“What if they never speak to me again?” And I would in my heart respond, “but God, I trust that if they don’t ever speak to me, you will heal my heart.”
I am not sure why the fearful thoughts captured me this morning but I am so thankful I didn’t have to remain mentally captive.
After 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’m a general “mom Friday” for my author daughter, Rebekah Lyn. I also manage her website, Rebekah Lyn Books
My 2024 goal is continue to use my love of photographs and words to be an encourager on social media.
After breakfast this morning, I packed up my things and met Billy in the lobby of the motel to start today’s museum hunt. We headed south out of Valdosta for 35 miles on US-129, across the border into Florida, to visit the Old Jail Museum located in Jasper, FL. This museum, also known as the Hamilton County Historic Old Jail Museum, is situated in the original old 1893 two-story jail building that served as Hamilton County’s only jail until 1984. This museum displays antique jail exhibits, artifacts, and photos to help visitors get an idea of how prisoners lived at the turn-of-the-century in rural Georgia. The building was originally designed, as many jails were in the 1800s, to house not only prisoners but also with living quarters for the local Sheriff (Warden) and his family.
Photo Credit: Bill Lites
Now we continued south another 20 miles on US-129 to visit the Live Oak Union Passenger Depot Museum located in Live Oak, FL. This museum is situated in the old 1861 Savannah, Florida & Western Railroad (SF&W) freight depot and was restored in 1885 to serve Live Oak and the surrounding Suwannee County area’s expanding railroad business. The museum displays antique railroad artifacts, photos, and memorabilia related to the influence the railroad had on the growth of this area in the mid-1800s.
Photo Credit: Bill Lites
After leaving Live Oak, we headed southeast about 25 miles on US-90 to just west of Lake City, FL where we picked up I-75 and turned south. We had gone about 35 miles south on I-75 when ‘nature’ called, and we pulled into the nearest Rest Stop. After that refreshing stop (we needed some exercise), we noticed this sign for the Snake Wall, and checked it out. It turns out that it is an inclined walkway that is described as “A unique piece of functional art (curving 325’ long) that successfully combines protection of the surrounding ecosystem and the roadway” and also provides access to the Payne Prairie Overlook. An impressive design, and it gets your blood pumping at a good rate, all at the same time (sorry, but the info marker was weathered).
Photo Credit: Bill Lites
Now it was another 45 miles south on I-75 to visit the Don Garlits Museum of Drag Racing located just south of Ocala, FL. I had visited this museum on another road trip, but Billy hadn’t been there, and he wanted to see all the racing machines. We spent a long time looking at the 90+ drag racing machines and another 50+ beautifully restored antique cars in the Antique Car building. WOW! What a collection! We learned that they race R/C model drag racing machines at the museum once each month, and Billy and I are planning to visit that event as soon as we
can. Sounds like a lot of fun.
Photo Credit: Bill Lites
Leaving that amazing museum, we continued south on I-75 another 15 miles to visit the Florida Carriage Museum in Weirsdale, FL and the Florida Pioneer Village in Dade City, FL but they were both closed. So, continuing another 35 miles south on I-75 we visited the Mission Base Museum & MOSI located just west of Thonotosassa, FL. This hugh facility Is a scientific playground for all ages, with 100+ hands-on activities including the Mission Moon Base Lunar Colony, VR Simulator and a planetarium. It was obvious from the number of kids in the lobby that school was out, at least for this bunch.
Photo Credit: Bill Lites
—–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.
You alone are my heart’s desire, my chief delight, my soul’s
Glory, joy, and crown. Every advantage life offers is rubbish compared to the overwhelming gain of knowing you. You are worthy, Lord—worthy to be thanked, praised, worshipped, and adored.
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.”
Even though Christmas has come and gone – as has the New Year celebration – I would like to continue describing my Christmas decorations – around the house, the neighborhood and our church building.
Finally, we come to the decorations at our church. As I mentioned earlier, some of our church members were animators at Disney, and their ideas for decorating are magnificent! Wait and see….
I’m not going to give dates on these pictures, just know that they have spread over quite a few years.
I’m not sure just where the church acquired this nativity scene, but it’s been used nearly every Christmas for a number of years. It’s beautiful.
I asked why it looks “blue” in the picture, and she said it was probably the LED lights behind it. In person, it is completely white.
We have two sound booths – both are decorated:
The church has one other booth for one of our cameras that we use for live streaming the morning worship service. They and the entrance doors are also decorated.
The committee also decorated the entrance to the building. We have a covered entrance (really nice on rainy days!), and the supporting posts were decorated thusly:
They also placed large wreaths on the outside lights of the Sanctuary.
I really like this look for our Sanctuary building.
And so ends the “Christmas is Coming” saga. I hope you’ve enjoyed this walk-through decorations for Christmas, as much as I’ve enjoyed posting it. I hope your Christmas was as wonderful as ours, and Fred and I pray your 2024 will be pleasing both to you and to God. We pray God’s guidance for you, and His great Love and Mercy to you.
~~~~~~~~~~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.
After breakfast this morning, I packed up my things and called my son, Billy, to let him know I was on my way to pick him up. We said our goodbyes to Lacey (she had to go to work) and Lisa (she was driving their car back to Florida) and Billy and I headed south 25 miles, thru morning rush-hour traffic, on I-85 & I-285 to visit the Waffle House Museum located in Decatur, GA. This small museum is located on the site where Joe Rogers and Tom Forkner opened their first Waffle House Restaurant in 1955. Since we didn’t have a tour appointment, we just took photos and headed for our next museum on today’s list.
Photo Credit: Bill Lites
Now it was only 15 miles southwest on I-20 & I-85 (more morning traffic) to visit the Hapeville Depot Museum located in Hapeville, GA but it was closed. So, we continued south another 10 miles on I-75 to visit the Old Train Depot Museum located in Jonesboro, GA. This museum is situated in the old 1867 M&W Railroad depot that replaced the original 1846 M&W depot and was restored in 1880. The museum displays early 1800s railroad artifacts and memorabilia, as well as being the home of the ‘Road to Tara’ Museum, which has a collection of ‘Gone with the Wind’ artifacts, costumes, and movie memorabilia.
Photo Credit: Bill Lites
After that interesting museum visit, it was only about 15 miles south on US-41 where we tried to visit the Army Aviation Museum located adjacent to the Clayton County Airport in Hampton, GA. We had no trouble finding the airport, and the sign for the museum. We followed the arrow on the sign, over some really rough roads and behinds some airplane hangars, but we just couldn’t find the museum anywhere.
Photo Credit: Bill Lites
So, we gave up on finding that museum and continued south about 100 miles to visit the Georgia Rural Telephone Museum located in Leslie, GA. For some reason Greta (my Garmin) took us over many back roads on a circuitous route (supposedly on US-19) to get us to this museum. We finally arrived at the museum and found it to be one of the largest and most interesting museums we have visited on this road trip. There were literally thousands of telephones, arranged in pretty much chronological order, dating from that instrument’s inception, in 1875 by Alexander Graham Bell, to the present. This is a very impressive museum! It was worth the trouble we went thru to find it.
Photo Credit: Bill Lites
After that amazing tour of the Telephone Museum, we discovered we had ended up almost 20 miles west of I-75 (the reason for all those back roads to get to Leslie). Now we needed to head back east on US-280 to visit the Cordele Rail Museum located in Cordele, GA but found that it was closed when we got there. So, we continued south another 40 miles on I-75 where we visited the Tifton Terminal Railway Museum located in Tifton, GA. This museum is situated in the old restored 1910 Atlantic Coast Line (ACL) depot and displays antique railroad exhibits, artifacts, and memorabilia dating from the mid-1800s.
Photo Credit: Bill Lites
By now we were getting hungry, and I gave Greta (my Garmin) the address of the motel 50 miles south, in Valdosta, GA and she took us right to it. I had told Billy the night before that I had a leftover Pork Chop dinner from the night before, so Lisa had made him some ham and cheese sandwiches for his dinner in the motel tonight. He told me that he was tired and was going to head to bed after we finished our dinner, so I warmed up my leftover Pork Chop plate and enjoyed that delicious meal again. What a treat that was. As usual I couldn’t find anything on TV to hold my interest, so I just recorded the day’s activities and went to bed.
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.
We have no limitations except ignorance, unbelief,
And flesh. Learn to renew your mind with God’s spirit truth
concerning favor with God and man.
God favors me today. God honors me today; I am a success today. I gave God’s special favor upon me today. He makes His face shine upon me today. He is gracious to me today. I am someone very special to the Lord.
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.”
Even though Christmas has come and gone – as has the New Year celebration – I would like to continue describing my Christmas decorations – around the house, the neighborhood and our church building.
And now the neighborhood…we had quite a few who decorated outside this year. Some were quite elaborate…some were not (like ours – simple). But we enjoyed them all.
Fred and I took a walk all around Chalfont subdivision one evening, and here is the result. I won’t comment about most of them. See what you think. Sorry I’m not a better photographer – some of these are rather blurry, but I think you can get a good vision of what was intended.
This is the entrance to Chalfont
Across the street from us. He also puts up a winter “village” in his garage each year – for his grandchildren, he says. I think he just enjoys doing it and having it to play with! The train actually moves around, as do the skiers.
It’s quite a production, and he starts putting it up about Thanksgiving time. Amazing!
This is one of my favorites. It is gorgeous in the daylight, as well.
Three pictures of the same house. I couldn’t get it all in, in one frame.
As you can see, our Chalfont was quite decorated for the Christmas holiday. We thoroughly enjoyed our walk around the subdivision and seeing all the sights. I hope you have enjoyed it, as well.
Next time will be decorations at our church. As I mentioned earlier, some of our church members were animators at Disney, and their ideas for decorating are magnificent! Wait and see….
~~~~~~~~~~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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Old Things R New 