Katrina

Well, Katrina is causing much heartache and sorrow all around the country. I have 3 classmates who live down in the affected areas... one in Gulfport, MS, one in Slidell, LA, and one in Phenix City,AL. Have heard from one... not sure how the other two are faring. It makes it hard to sit in your nice, comfy home, knowing that your friends have lost everything they own, including friends and family. Keeps you on your knees.....

Attitudes

Keeping a right attitude is work... hard work. Oh, it's easy when life is good, but as soon as life throws you a curveball, the attitude adjustment is tremendously hard work! Such has been my experience today. My car decided to blow a radiator today, and my children are being overly disrespectful and whiney. School begins tomorrow (thank you JESUS) so I will get a small reprieve from the whiney attitudes tomorrow. It will give me time to spend ample time with my Savior and place all frustrations at His feet, and then be still in His presence as He reassures me that He will never leave me nor forsake me. We get so freaked out when things go wrong with regard to material possessions. Correction... I get freaked out. I am not a material person, but I have this deep rooted FEAR where money is concerned. FEAR of not being able to make ends meet because of foolish spending habits (not all mine, either....). FEAR because I know that without tithing with a cheerful heart, God will NOT help me out of the current jam I find myself in. It's hard to tithe cheerfully, knowing that when you pay the tithe, there will be NO food in the fridge, No gas in the car, and NO peace, realizing your children are suffering for YOUR foolish habits. Yep.... that's where I find myself living, and it is not a good feeling. So there you have it... confessions of an apostolic pentecostal blogger. I am human, and I fall far short of the glory of God. Satan wants me to believe that I am the only one feeling this way. I know that is not true. I will not give in to his "divide and conquer" tactics. Jesus will not abandon me. I can overcome by repentence. Sorry to vent on you all. Should save all this for the prayer closet.

There was a good thing in life today... I heard from my classmate Tracy who lives in Gulfport, MS. She and her family evacuated to Chattanooga, TN at her brother-in-law's house. She has no idea what she will find when she goes home... she is hopeful their home is not a total loss. I guess my problems are small in comparison... Time to stop my OWN whining!

Happy Anniversary!

Hello! YES, IT'S REALLY ME!!! I have missed you all so much!!! I hate having no access to my computer, and I have not been able to get online at home for over a month! AHHHH!!!!! I am truly alive and well. I am currently at my dear friend Sandy Loseby's home for an end of the summer barbeque. Her boys, Josh and Dylan, begin school tomorrow. Mine begin on Wednesday. YAY! Summer vacation is over! Praise God! Back to the routine.

Yesterday was mine and Jason's wedding anniversary, and I have to tell you he blew my mind! He rented us a white 2005 mustang convertible for 24 hours, and took me over to Lake Placid, NY to a fabulous restaurant called the Boat House on Mirror Lake. Here is a picture of the mustang I called my own for a few hours...


Man, it was ours for a DAY...

We ate out on the deck over the water and watched the sun set over the Adirondack Mountains. The man knows how to romance a woman!!!!! The ride back was just as wonderful... we were on the ferry coming back to Vermont, it was dark out. We had the top down, and put the seats back to look up at the billion stars in the sky.... I was pretty sure I had died and gone to heaven! What a tremendous time we had!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE YOU JASON!!!!! It's been a wonderful eleven years... looking forward to many many more!

Gotta get going... it's a school night for the Loseby boys, and it's 8:32 pm. They need to get to bed. We need to drive 90 minutes home. Love you all... Verizon TELLS me I should have my DSL back on Tuesday evening... I'll believe it when I see it.... I'm beginning to think Verizon is evil.... Blog ya soon!

Building barbeque

Tonight was such a fun evening! Everyone in our apartment building got together to have a barbeque, partly to celebrate the end of summer before children go back to school, and partly to say farewell to a couple who are moving on Monday to Nebraska. We had a wonderful time! There were 18 of us total, including the two cute little babies, Kevin and Tyler. Lots of good stuff to eat, but better than that, great relationship-building took place. This is how we connect to people on a deep personal level and lead them to Jesus Christ. After the barbeque was over and the children were all in bed asleep, many of the adults sat out on the porch with candles on the table, just talking into the night. It felt so peaceful and right! I love where we are living. There is great fear among us because our new building owners are money hungry developers who are bent on jacking up the rent to a level none of us can afford. We are nervous about having to move out... I would hate that. I am very close to everyone in this building, and very happy with our location. Moving is NOT in my plans for awhile. But I am not sure about GOD'S plans for my family. That makes me even more nervous. If His plan is to move us, then His will must be done... I would HATE to have to move from my friends...

Well, anyway, that was the great fun of the evening. Tomorrow, I will go for my job interview, and leave it in the hands of the Lord. I'll keep you posted! Bye for now!

Random events of the day

What did we do interesting today? We walked down the street and watched someone's house burn to the ground (sorry, no photo currently available). How sad. At least no one was hurt. But it was not a good day for that homeowner.

In other news, we had a great time at Life Group this evening, and ended by watching a hilarious comedy video of Ken Davis, a christian comedian. He is totally nuts! Everyone had a good belly laugh!

Pinkeye is taking over my house! AHHHHH! Prescription medication, lots of handwashing, and lots of clorox wipes just does not seem to be doing the job. Lord have mercy!

Two weeks to go until school starts back up.... YAY!!!! I have a job interview on Friday afternoon for an instructional assistant position in Colchester. I sooooooooooooooo need the steady income this job would afford me. Please pray for me! I do have my name in on the sub lists, but this job would be guaranteed income...

Well, not much spiritual to discuss today. But God is always good. He provided all our needs today and kept us all safe. My husband was working for the sheriff's dept today, and the 6:00 news this evening brought news of the tragic death of a NY sheriff's deputy today as he was issuing a ticket... he was hit by a tractor trailer truck. He was 31. Thank you Jesus for protecting MY HUSBAND!!!!!!!!!!! I am so sad for that deputy's family. I pray they find comfort in the arms of God. Lord, send someone into their life that can make a difference and lead them to you. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Good night.

Bringing Jesus to my corner of the world

What to write? It is currently 2:03 am... I just finished reading a tremendously powerful 8-part blog by a young lady named Natala... a Christian, who befriended a 19 year old porn star... it is a tragically sad story, with a VERY powerful message to all about being Jesus to others.... I hesitate to link to the article, as it is kind of, as my blogger acquaintaince Wendy put it, gritty. But I cried as I read, and have MUCH to pray about, as this rings loud and true in perfect harmony with what my pastor preached to us on Sunday evening about revival... healing by reaching outward. Cleaning house (i.e. our hearts/lives... get the junk OUT), being Jesus to a lost and hurting world. I am ready to commit to making it through what my pastor described as the ugly, messy, painful process of moving from death to life... revival comes at a cost. That point is dramatically clear after reading this blog series by Natala.

I am determined to see souls saved in the apartment building I live in. I am determined to bring Jesus to my corner of the world! Our 6 year old neighbor Taylor who lives upstairs is coming to Sunday school with us... her mom is hearing the tape of all the songs our children's choir sings, because Taylor stands up front with the choir, even though she doesn't know the words to any of the songs! Her mom's boyfriend, who has problems overcoming addictions, is hearing Taylor sing the songs and talk incessantly about her new sunday school friends. Taylor's cousin lives in the unit above us, and is my son Nick's best friend... CJ! The one who was gone all summer. Taylor is singing a song we learned in a recent children's crusade, and stopped in the middle of the song yesterday to point her finger at CJ and say, "CJ you need to come to sunday school and learn about Jesus!" YES! CJ has a mom and stepdad (and baby brother) who need to be introduced to Jesus Christ! I also have next door neighbors who are already christians, but are stuggling with life and marriage issues. I want to be Jesus to them, and extend the love and wisdom of God to them through our friendship. We are quite close. In fact, I have developed close relationships with ALL of these families mentioned! Our building is ripe for harvest! I must be Jesus to them all! I live my witness, I love them unconditionally, and share Jesus when I can. I don't want to stand before God having no excuse for not sharing what He gave me... Natala's story is so heart breaking... OK... I will provide a link to the blog, but don't click if you will be offended by the language... it is just the way the girl in the story communicated... it was what she knew...

I want to bring Jesus to a lost and hurting world. God help me.

CJ is home!

I realize I haven't posted in forever... that's what happens when you don't pay your internet bill... oops! But we've got it mostly fixed, and should be back online by Monday.

Anyway, today is Sunday, and after 2 long months, CJ is finally home from Connecticut! YAY!!! We have really missed having him around. Elizabeth has been gone for almost as long... she's not home yet. She lives next door to our apartment. My boys have been missing their friends. Makes for a long summer when your friends go away for almost the entire summer vacation! Welcome home, CJ! Hurry home, Elizabeth!

In other news, I nearly had a heart attack going to get gas today... $2.45 a gallon at GO GO GAS! Yikes! But God did a really cool thing for me today! On our way home from church, I was running on fumes, my little gas pump light was on (saying, hey dummy, you have no gas!), and the needle was on the red mark. So, I began singing! I believe God, I believe God, ask Him what you will and it shall be done, trust and obey, believe Him and say, oh I believe, I believe God." Then I said, "In Jesus' name, I believe and trust God to not only give me enough gas to get home, but enough to get me to the gas station too. Amen. As soon as I got done, the gas pump light went off and the needle moved up off the red! I serve such an incredibly faithful God! Yes, I do!

I could go on and on, because I haven't blogged in FOREVER, but Adam is dying to get on and check his email, so I will say goodbye for now and chat with y'all later! Bye!

Children, birthdays, and persecution

Hello all! Sorry I've been absent for a few days... been busy with my sweet neice Sonja from Florida, and shuttling my boys back and forth to play dates and the like.

My husband celebrated his 34th birthday on Saturday... he prefers to call it the "9th anniversary of his 25th birthday". Whatever. We had a little trouble coordinating a celebration, because he worked Friday night, and I worked Saturday night... Sunday we went to camp... we'll get our celebration time sometime this week.

Our church has a daughter work in St. Albans. They have been having services since June 12th in a building that used to be a school, but now it is a youth center. They had the blessing of the town employee that arranged their rental agreement, and were enjoying growth and wonderful moves of God. Suddenly, the city of St. Albans has decided that it is against town policy to allow any type of "religious services" to take place in municipal buildings. The pastor of the St. Albans daughter work took it in stride because he was actually concerned that he wasn't meeting any resistance! WOW! Personally, I think their equal access rights are being violated and it is unconstitutional for the city to disallow access to the building. But Matt seems to think that God has better things in store. He says God never takes something away without providing something better. Praise God! I believe it! We are having revival in St. Albans!

Anyway, that is it for now. My husband is doing devotion with the kids. It's called "angels are powerful." Amen. Talk with you later!