Skidaway Island State Park, Savannah, Georgia
…give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. ~ I Thessalonians 5:18
Unbelievably, just as I was starting to think I was moving quickly toward healing, Blaine and I have both come down with a head cold! Ugh!!
It’s really hard to be thankful for this now ten-day season of illness. But then again, we need to be thankful it’s not worse – and it could be sooooo much worse!
Meanwhile, I was able to walk around the campground a bit this morning, made some homemade tuna salad and scrubbed the bathroom down really well and Blaine continued to work on our reservations from the middle of June through September. We’ll be going up into a little-known (at least to most of us Americans I’d venture) area of southeast Quebec, Canada. Should be a wonderful trip!
Working out the plan and making reservations
Those are man-made oyster beds.
Something about aiding with the ecosystem . . . .
I’m still too sick to comprehend new information . . . .
You can look it up, or ask Blaine. : )
So, since we didn’t do anything particularly blog-worthy today (again!), here’s another excerpt from my “God Moments” journal.
In March, 1988, we had a house fire. Now mind you, exactly 3 weeks earlier, another family in the church (Emmanuel United Church of Christ in Akron, Ohio) also had a house fire. Weird, huh? In those 3 weeks, besides donating money to them, people talked about “What would you save besides your family?” Most agreed pictures were of utmost importance.
So anyway, Blaine & I had been out at a union-sponsored bowling event. The boys had a babysitter. We got home around midnight, took the sitter home and went to bed. About 3am, Blaine woke up and said he smelled smoke. He got up and looked all around, but found nothing and came back to bed. A little while later, he said he still smelled it and got up again. I thought he must be dreaming. I didn’t smell anything. But he persisted – or should I say, God persisted. Just as he yelled “FIRE!”, the smoke detector in the stairwell went off!
Fortunately, in another life, the house was used as an apartment and there was still an outdoor stairwell that exited from Kyle’s room. We threw on some clothes, grabbed the kids, Blaine moved the dresser blocking the exit, yanked open the sealed door and we took off to the neighbor’s.
I sincerely believe that God woke Blaine that night and persisted in convincing him that he smelled smoke! When the dust settled, we had very little left. The house was beyond repair, though still standing and stable enough to walk thru. The fire had started downstairs in a storage room and most of the damage was in that room where we stored our pictures and Kyle’s room above where we made our escape, with our cocker spaniel, Brandy close at our heels. Unfortunately, our cat, Sunshine didn’t make it.
But here’s another really cool part! Almost all of our pictures were saved!! The firemen immediately started throwing things out the window when they arrived – including all the packets of pictures that were stored in there. (Remember York Color Labs? The mail-order photo-developing company?) After the firemen left, my family picked them all up, took them to Grandma & Grandpa Glass’s house, dried them off and separated them to dry. Because of everyone’s efforts (and I believe some divine intervention), the most important thing to us besides our lives was saved! The only pictures lost were those that were on the walls of our home! We salvaged a few clothes that were in dressers and a couple of suits and my baby grand piano was able to be re-finished (tho it was never quite the same after that). That’s about it. Everything else was bulldozed down.
Many people cared for us during this time. Most considered it a tragedy, but Blaine and I recognize it as God’s protection. How blessed we felt! How cared for! He provided protection, a place to stay (with Ron & Joan for 6 weeks), a good insurance company, donations of clothing & toys from all over, wisdom, and our pictures!
After living with Ron & Joan for six weeks, we found a house to rent in Firestone Park in Akron where we lived for about 18 months. Chris started pre-school, life went on and Blaine & I continued to be missing something. Though we didn’t exactly realize it or know what, we had an idea that we needed to explore a different church option. We just knew things weren’t quite right at Emmanuel.
Blaine & I talked about leaving Emmanuel, but he had been on the pastoral search committee and felt we should at least give the new pastor (Rev. Roberts) a chance. We did. He’s the one who did the “song” sermons I mentioned earlier. Then, against my better judgment, I let them talk me into running for Spiritual Council (that’s like a Deacon’s Board). I felt like not only was I not old enough to give counsel, but I also wasn’t anywhere near spiritually wise. But under mild pressure, I did it. I was about 25 years old.
One of our first meetings was to determine whether or not to allow a fund-raiser that was a raffle. The head of the counsel advised us to go home and think about it for a month. Silly me, I spent the month trying to find something in my Bible (after I dusted it off) about gambling. Do you know there’s not a single, solitary use of the word ‘gambling’ in the entire Bible??? At that time that’s the only way I knew how to look things up – the concordance. But I did run across a verse that talked about not leading another brother astray. I took that to mean that we shouldn’t encourage others to gamble in the event that possibly someone in the church or a visitor, might have a gambling problem and so we shouldn’t tempt them. So at the next meeting, I actually brought my Bible (Imagine! To a SPIRITUAL Council meeting! – more sarcasm) and read them the verse I had found. ….make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister. ~ Romans 14:13b
The president of the council looked right at me and said, “I know you think you did the right thing, but I’m a good person and you’re a good person and we don’t need to look to the Bible for our answers.” I was shocked speechless, even naïve as I was!! And the Pastor didn’t refute him!! Neither did anyone else who was present. I don’t remember anything else about the meeting. That was the last straw. We left the church right after Easter (previous commitments kept us from leaving immediately) with no place in particular to go. That was definitely a God thing. I can remember someone telling me that we couldn’t leave because they thought of me as a well. I told them that was nice, but well’s run dry if they’re not being fed. I think even those words must have come from God, because it’s certainly not something I would have thought to say. I’ve never been that poetic!
We had both boys by then. As soon as we left the church Blaine suddenly started having to work almost every single Sunday. (I believe God allowed Satan to try and stop us, but he couldn’t!) We didn’t really want me out looking for churches without Blaine, so the boys and I went back to our growing-up-home church. Grace UCC in Uniontown. People, especially my mom and aunt, were very excited that we were attending. Even though I told them we had no intention of staying. We didn’t know exactly what we were supposed to be looking for, but we knew that we needed something more than any previous church had offered us.
One day, Chris asked me why we weren’t staying at “Grandma Dunn’s” church. And the Holy Spirit intervened and gave me wisdom. I asked him about his Sunday School class. If there was a Bible in his room – “Yes” – if his teacher ever read from a Bible – “No” – to which I replied, “That’s why we’re not staying.” and then I explained the importance of reading from your Bible and not just relying on what you or other people might think. It’s God’s Word that matters most.