Tag Archives: Christian bloggers

Angels Unaware

1 Jan

On the Porch

Onisha Ellis

I'm a winner

When my beloved dog, Max died,  I decided to not adopt another dog. One reason was that it just hurt too much to lose him.

Max

When we moved to North Carolina I was delighted to discover our new home came complete with a porch dog. At first we didn’t know his name so the grandchildren named him Oreo, so named due to his black and white markings. We later learned his name is Gus. We call him our porch dog because he comes to sit with us on our porch, he is always polite never begging for food or jumping( he does occasionally try to be a lap dog). He just wants to share his love with us. On days my husband works in his wood working shop, Gus is there to guard the door and keep him company and is always ready for a walk to the mailbox. In return we share juicy tidbits of meat scraps. His owners don’t mind.

One day last week Gus did the sweetest thing. It was a very chilly morning and Mike was in the garage, changing the oil in our car  Even though he laid some blankets on the concrete he was still  freezing. As he lay there, shivering, Gus found Mike and crawled under the car. He laid down next to him, then sensing how cold Mike was, he snuggled closer, molding his body to Mike, sharing his warmth with him.

The Bible speaks of entertaining angels unaware, I wonder if Gus might be ours.

Gus JPEG copy

 

Hebrews 13:2  Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.

Wishing each of our readers a year full of blessings in  2015. In the words of Corrie Ten Boom, one of the most inspiring women I know of, the best is yet to come.

CORRIE The best is yet to come

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A Light Affliction

29 Dec

My Take

DiVoran Lites

Author, Poet and Artist

Pens

 

Purple pen, blue pen.

What do you write pen?

 

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An Amazing Adventure~Part 10

28 Dec

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

JUDY

                                                  

The next morning, we had a buffet breakfast at the hotel, then stopping for a gas fill up before heading East. Our first stop was at Beaver Creek Ski Resort. Brian parked the van and we headed up to the Beaver Creek Village.

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Very swanky ski resort there—unique shops mostly pertaining to the ski industry. And apparently President Gerald R. Ford and his wife, Betty, were great enthusiasts in the area—so much so that there was Gerald R. Ford Hall, a convention center of sorts.

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We saw some gorgeous bronze figures there.

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It was heading on toward lunchtime by that time, so we decided to just stop there and eat before heading on to Vail. We stopped at The Blue Moose for pizza and a soda. REALLY good pizza! We ate at one of the outdoor tables, and thoroughly enjoyed the sunshine and cool weather.

From Beaver Creek we drove on to Vail, Colorado proper and Lionshead Village. We visited Vail Village and Ford Park—the Betty Ford Alpine Park, which is the world’s highest botanical garden. Beautiful garden, with a children’s section in it, as well. Some gorgeous leaf-changing color, as well.

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From Vail/Beaver Creek, we headed to Rocky Mountain National Park.

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We saw Grand Lake, and Lake Grandy. We saw some very old cars! Don’t know exactly why they were there, but it was fun to see them.

There was also a bronze memorial to Park Ranger Suzanne Elizabeth Roberts, who was killed by a rockfall while in the Haleakala National Park on Maui, Hawaii. She had served at Rocky Mountain National Park for 10 years before going to Hawaii. Nice Memorial.

We were most impressed with the huge stands of Aspen trees we saw. Those were the trees that I grew up seeing in the New Mexico mountains outside Albuquerque, so they meant a lot to me. Those yellow and orange leaves were just beautiful!

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The outside air temperature was 71° as we started up the mountain, and was 58° at 10,500’ which was two miles above sea level!   Brian was quite insistent that he wanted to see a MOOSE! So we kept looking all along the drive up. He did finally see one—laying down—but he saw it! It had quite a large rack (of horns) on it, as well. Brian was well pleased.

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We crossed the Continental Divide at Milner Pass, which sits at 10,759’ above sea level. The air temperature was 60° there—rather chilly!

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

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My Colonial States Trip~Part 6

24 Dec

A Slice of Life

Bill Lites

Bill Lites

 

I headed west back across the border into Maine toward my next stop in Bangor, ME to get a picture of the 31 foot tall Paul Bunyan statue. It is rumored that the Paul Bunyan myth originated in the early 1800s with lumberjacks exchanging many of their tall-tales across the northern territories, including in and around the northern Maine forest area known as The Devil’s Half-Acre. The story has grown to great proportions over the years, most usually with Paul Bunyan being accompanied by his faithful companion “Babe” the blue ox. Paul Bunyan was said to have wondered the woods displaying his bigger than life super-human strength and abilities.

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While I was in Bangor, I visited the Cole Land Transportation Museum which houses an amazing collection of vehicles from bicycles, motorcycles, cars, trucks to a diesel locomotive and a WWII tank. This museum’s dedication to honoring America’s military personnel and the equipment they used in the various war efforts our country has been involved in was truly gratifying.

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Before leaving Maine I wanted to be sure I experienced a New England lobster meal, so I had dinner at the Weathervane Seafood Restaurant in Waterville, ME where I had a bowl of New England Clam Chowder, as an appetizer, followed by a 1-pound Maine lobster. The chowder was excellent as was the lobster, even if it was a battle getting to the tail meat. I guess I’ve been spoiled with how the Florida restaurants split the underside of the Florida lobster tails for their guests, making it much easier to get at that delicious tail meat.

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Having satisfied my Main lobster craving, I now headed west again thru the upper part of Maine and into New Hampshire to visit the Gorham Railroad Museum in Gorham, NH where I got a personal tour of the station museum, as well as a running history of the Grand Trunk Railway system, that pretty much put the city of Gorham on the map in 1751. At the end of the tour, Bob, my tour guide even gave me a homemade muffin his wife had baked that morning. Now you can’t beat that for museum hospitality can you?

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Next it was west again to check out the Vermont Railroad Museum in White River Junction, VT which actually turned out to be an active Amtrak station. The station is also used by the Green Mountain Railroad to provide passenger excursion trains to Thetford and Norwich, VT. The station was built in 1937 as a Union Terminal to serve the Boston & Maine Railroad, the Central Vermont Railroad and the Rutland Railroad.

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While I was in Vermont I planned to visit the Railroad Museum in Bellow Falls, VT only to find that the museum and most of its rolling stock had been incorporated into the Steamtown U.S.A. collection, run by the National Park Service and moved to Scranton, PA. Since by now I was headed south, I decided not to make a side trip that far west and continued toward my next stop at the Saratoga Automobile Museum in Saratoga Springs, NY. As it turned out, I got to the museum late in the day and the museum was hosting a huge auto show. All the cars were in an enclosed area where the admission ticket was more than I wanted to pay, since I wouldn’t have had time to see the entire display.

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—–To Be Continued—–

 

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Cookie Party

22 Dec

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My Take

DiVoran Lites

Author, Poet and ArtistIt’s so frustrating to have plans for a day and get up late, and then you have other things to do such as feed the cats and cut your hair before you take a shower. I felt I needed to bake a second batch of cookies for the cookie exchange that night because the hostess asked for three dozen. I haven’t baked cookies in a long time and didn’t know if I still could, thus a trial run.

Anyhow, until I drank my coffee that morning and had a good chat with my daughter, I was feeling frustrated. Finally, I gave up my own plans, which majored on writing and went with the flow of the day.

When I got to the party that evening four women were already there. We had good conversation. No one hogged the floor; no one regaled us with a rant or complained about her lot in life. We were simpatico and as Christians, we were one. That always feels so good!

My cookies were a variation of the recipe on the back of the chocolate-chip bag. I always experiment with every recipe I try, so I thought I’d go for a crispy cookie with lots of nuts instead of a chewy one. Having wondered for fifty years why I must always use brown sugar, I decided to Google the question. In the past, I’d buy it, use enough for one recipe, and have the rest of the box on hand for as many years as it took to turn into solid rock. (I know there are ways to overcome that.) I googled it and the answer was that it was brown because of the molasses added to it and that’s what made the cookies more chewy. I didn’t buy brown sugar. For various reasons, which I won’t go into right now, the first batch was light golden, and raised, and the second batch was crisper, flatter, browner, and not so sweet. I liked the second batch best.

An hour and a half into the party two other guests arrived with their cookies. It was then that we heard all about the vagaries of cookie baking when you’re older, there aren’t any kids in the house, and you’ve given up baking cookies. One woman expressed all my anxieties in a funny soliloquy. Few recipes she found used brown sugar and she wasn’t going to make cookies without it. Her first batch, in spite of two ovens and two timers, came out burnt and as hard as hockey pucks. She threw those away. I went home when the party was just getting started. I wanted to get to bed early so I could get up today and write.

And guess what, here I am — writing. Oh, Happy Day.

Here is someone who had no plans for the day.

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Ps. 118:24 – This is the day that the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it.

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An Amazing Adventure~Part 9

21 Dec

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

JUDY

I would like to make a “disclaimer” here: Some years ago, Fred and I purchased “Lifetime” passes to our U.S. National Parks. For a very nominal fee, admission to our NPS are free—for our lifetime! They came in very handy on this trip, with all the NPS parks we entered. If you are ever thinking about making such a trip—it is very well-worth your money to purchase a pass. Karen and Brian had theirs, as well, but probably paid more than we did, since we purchased ours as “seniors.” Look into it….

We finally made our way to Arches National Park.

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There are over 2000 natural stone arches in this park. There are massive pinnacles, fins, and balanced rocks. It’s one place you won’t want to turn your head for fear of missing something amazing. And you should recognize the Delicate Arch—made famous as the desktop picture on a lot of computers! It is also on some of the Utah license plates, and the Utah state quarter. It looks like it isn’t very big—and we only saw it from a distance—but it’s 65’ tall—that’s about as tall as a five-or-six story building! I’ve seen pictures of it with people below it, and they look really tiny!

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The entrance to the Visitors Center at Arches has some amazing bronze animals.

We saw a great video about the formation of the arches within the park, and are told how they are continually changing—and eventually will collapse with just the right time, wind, rain, and snow.

Brian was more adventurous than the rest of us, so he plowed ahead, while we took our time climbing Park Avenue. We’re told that it was named that because the massive rock formations reminded the Arches National Park discoverers of Park Avenue in New York City.

 

It was a bit slow-going for me (I’ve GOT to get my knees fixed!!), but we made it, and saw some fantastic formations along the way. There was Bowed Rock, Windows, Turret, Caves, Pothold Arch, Queen Nefertiti,

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the Three Gossips,

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Panorama Point, Delicate Arch and others. Fred and Brian went on further to see and photograph Landscape Arch.

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We saw the balanced rock from several angles. We saw lots of “fins”

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and some arches within large rocks.

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It’s just beyond description. And we walked along side some massive rocks, just lying around. Again, Brian is more adventurous that the rest of us, and climbed up on a couple of them. He’s nuts!!

As sunset was approaching, we headed out of Arches and went into Moab. We stopped at a Wendy’s for supper, and at a grocery store to refill our cooler. Then we drove over two hours to Grand Junction. We stayed at the Grand Vista Hotel there.

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

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A Servant’s Heart

19 Dec

 

From my Heart

Louise GIbson

Louise Gibson

 

The true spirit of Christmas is one of giving.

To give of yourself is the greatest gift of all.

To follow in the footsteps of Jesus.

we learn to develop a servant’s heart

in answer to our Savior’s call.

 

Jesus welcomes, “Come, follow Me.

I will make you a fisher of men,”

“Oh, yes, dear Lord, I want to follow you.

Life on earth is not he end!

 

 

The three Marys who served

 

The three most prominent women in the gospels

were all named Mary. The first was Mary of Nazareth.

God chose her to raise Jesus because of her servant’s

heart.

“For He has regarded the lowly state of His maidservant;

for behold, “henceforth, all generations will call me blessed,”

 

 

The second was Mary of Bethany. She was His student.

Whenever she appeared in the gospels, she was at

the feet of Jesus.

 

The third was Mary of Magdala. Though successful in

business, she had deep spiritual needs in her life.

Jesus freed her from demons, saved her, and she

became His zealous supporter. She supported His

ministry from her own resources, according to Luke 8:1-3.

 

Mary and Joseph xmas 1001 (2)

 

* Painting by DiVoran Lites

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My Colonial States Trip~Part 5

17 Dec

A Slice of Life

Bill Lites

Bill Stars Plane

The next morning I planned to start the day with a visit to the Maine Maritime Museum located in Bath, ME but they didn’t open until later in the day and as                                                                                                                                                      the poem by Robert Frost goes, “The woods are lovely dark and deep, but I have promises to keep and miles to go before I sleep, and miles to go before I sleep.” So I just kept on trucking up US #1 toward Owls Head, ME and the Transportation Museum there. This is one of the best transportation museums I have ever visited, where many of their over 150 transportation vehicle collection are from the pre-1920s era, and they all operate as originally designed. I got my first ride in a 1915 Ford Model T, and it ran like a sewing machine. What a thrill that was!

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I would like to have stayed longer in that museum, but I headed north on US #1 again toward my next stop at the Penobscot Marine Museum in Searsport, ME. This museum is Maine’s oldest maritime museum and is designed to preserve Searsport’s unique maritime and shipbuilding history. It is laid out as a 19th century seafaring village, with thirteen buildings, housing a collection of archival items focusing on the maritime history and life in New England during the early 18th century.

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Now I was headed for Bar Harbor and Acadia Nation Park, located near the mouth of the Bay of Fundy, at the northeast edge of Maine. It was a beautiful day and the drive around Acadia National Park was breath-taking. The leaves on the trees were just beginning to turn, making the scenery that much more beautiful.

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Next it was back thru Ellsworth, Maine and the long drive up US #1 thru Columbia Falls and Jonesboro to Calais and the Canadian border, where I was asked where I was going and what the purpose of my trip was.   After I crossed the border into New Brunswick, for some reason, Greta wouldn’t recognize the motel address. It was after dark, and I didn’t have a map of the area, so I called the motel and the clerk told me which exit to take and then talked me into Fredericton, NB and to the motel. Wow, that was a life-saver, and what a relief it was! The next morning I visited the Christ Church Cathedral before heading out of town. The beautiful cathedral was built in 1853 and has continued to hold services right up to modern times. The front door was open and wonderful organ music was being played by someone on the church’s four-manual Casavant Freres Opus 2399 organ (which has more than 2500 wood and metal pipes). What a beautiful way to start one’s day.

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I headed west to visit the Kings Landing Historical Settlement which is a late 18th century living museum, made up of almost 70 buildings, located on 300 acres, where period life of the “United Empire Loyalists” is re-created by costumed interpreters that bring to life the era with explanations of how the people lived, worked and played during that time in New Brunswick. As I walked toward the bridge, I was pleased to hear a mellow singing voice echoing across the water to me. When I arrived at the King’s Head Inn, there was the singer, sitting on a bench with his guitar, strumming more early British folk tunes for the people passing by. The village was very interesting but the usual transportation wagon never showed up and it ended up being quite a walk back to my car!

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—–To Be Continued—–

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An Amazing Adventure~Part 8

14 Dec

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

JUDY

 

 

The next morning, we had breakfast at our out-of-the-way hotel. It was surprisingly good—make your own waffles and all the stuff that goes along with that.

We went through the little area known as Fruita. There is a bit of history about it, as well. It was settled by the Mormons, and they planted all kinds of fruit trees—apple, pear, peach, cherry, apricot, mulberry, even Potowatomee Plum (I’d never heard of that one). They made their living off all the things one can make from fruit. The original name of the place was Junction. After the success of the fruit trees, they changed the name to Fruita.

The residents (usually no more than about 10 families) built a one-room school house, which still stands today, after some renovation. The National Park Service purchased most of the land—and trees—and razed most of the buildings. But the school house survived. And while the land and trees belong to the National Park Service, the public is invited to help harvest. According to their website, any fruit consumed in the park is free. If you pick the fruit and take it out of the park—you are charged. Interesting. Here is a picture of that one-room schoolhouse.

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From there, we headed on to Canyonlands and Arches National Parks, in Moab, Utah. It took us a while to get there, so by the time we arrived, it was time for lunch.

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I found it interesting to know that Canyonlands National Park is the LARGEST park in Utah! When looking at the map, there is an area five or six time larger than Canyonlands, but then I realized it is the Grand Staircase Escalante National MONUMENT—not a national park Big difference—I suppose mostly who controls the area. Canyonlands has deeply eroded canyons interspersed with sheer-sided mesas and a variety of spires, arches and unusual rock formations

We had a picnic lunch near the Grand View Point, at an outside picnic table. We were joined by some chipmunks and either a raven or a crow (we aren’t sure just what each of those birds looks like, so…..). They must have had some scraps from other picnickers, because they were quite bold.

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After lunch, we drove around Canyonlands, as much as we could. Again, of course, I wanted to get out and take pictures of just everything I could see. So Brian stated that when we stopped, it was for a “two photo stop” only. If I took more than two photos, he would go off and leave me (he never did)! Of course, if HE got out to take pictures, the deal was off!

 

We stopped at Buck Canyon Overlook. Fantastic scenery. It’s like I just couldn’t get enough of it all. Apparently the Green and Colorado rivers confluence carved out what we saw. Absolutely amazing! Breath-taking! And frankly, I thought some of the rock formations were as spectacular as what we saw in Grand Canyon.

The elevations in Canyonlands range from 3,700’ to 7,200’ above sea level. That makes for hot summers and cold winters. Sometimes the temperatures can change as much as 50° within one day. The area has less than 10” of rain per year, usually in the summer by monsoons, which can cause flash flooding.

There is also an area within Canyonlands called Upheaval Dome. The “experts” still aren’t sure—even after all these years of studying it—whether it was a salt dome that exploded, or a meteorite impact. It was a bit of a hike—classified as a “short steep trail” to get to the overlook, so Brian was the only one who made that trek. We contented ourselves with the sign.

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

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What is Your Favorite Christmas Activity

11 Dec

On the Porch

Onisha Ellis

I'm a winner

Baking is my favorite Christmas activity. For me it beats decorating hands down. Usually I bake with my grandchildren but this year “the baking season” began in my daughter Rebekah’s kitchen which is a treat for me as usually we are six hundred miles apart. Today’s baking by Rebekah  yielded five different types of cookies,  loaves of vanilla tea bread and muffins large and mini. I contributed a fudge experiment which was a failure as fudge, but it will make some fantastic hot fudge sauce. My major contribution was washing up, you know all the bowls, spatulas, measuring cups and spoons and I enjoyed every minute of it. I have sweet memories of working side by side in the kitchen with my mother and aunts. I think we created some memories today too. Soon we will be back in North Carolina and three generations will be baking together.  I am sure I will be continuing my role as dishwasher-in-chief.

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Rebekah’s favorite recipe source Tea Time magazine

 

As a child, my mother and I had matching aprons. Hers wore out but mine was packed away and brought out for Rebekah, then my granddaughter, Karyssa. The apron Rebekah is wearing in the photo below is a memory apron with three generations of cooks embroidered on it. It will soon be time to create a new apron for my granddaughter.

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Vanilla tea loaves coming out of the oven.

 

 

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