Marsha's Blog

Good morning!   This coming Tuesday, Spring will arrive in Australia. I’ve said this before, but this is the only country I know that has four distinct dates for the four seasons.  It’s quite rational, except that this morning, it was pretty chilly outside and didn’t feel like Spring was anywhere near! Of course, I have to keep that in perspective. When I say “cold”, I mean that I had a wrap around my shoulders and decided to go back inside and put on stockings (nylons) because my legs were feeling it.   This morning, Tony was getting ready to preach twice, plus a third online version thanks to Covid restrictions. As we drove to church, he asked me, “When you made that decision to go into full time ministry, and then made it a condition of our getting married, did you ever   dream   how that would play out today?”   I thought about it for a minute and remembered a high school student in Tony’s class who announced that after graduation, he w...

I came across an interesting anecdote the other day about a guy who worked all day helping an elderly lady do some renovations on her house.  "At the end of the day", she promised him, “I’ll give you   all you can eat Pizza !" Well, that kept him going the rest of the day and into the long afternoon when his strength was beginning to wane.   Finally the job was done. The young man sat down to rest, his mouth watering as he heard the sounds of rustling in the kitchen.   Soon the old grandma toddled out onto the veranda holding a tray. “This is my specialty!” she declared, beaming with pride. “And it’s in keeping with the special diet my doctor has me on. It’s a crustless, meatless and   cheeseless   pizza! I was drawn to that story, because that’s exactly what Tony and I have been facing these last six months, determined to lay off anything cancer likes, in an attempt to starve it away, even if we inadvertently starve ourselves. Sugar, meat,...

As my sister and I enjoyed an early morning call, as we sometimes do,  my darling husband toiled in the kitchen making breakfast.  Since he’s been on this ‘cancer killing diet’ (over which we’re rejoicing, BTW, since it, along with lots of prayers, seems to have worked!), I’ve been making up a concoction of dried chick peas, nutritional yeast and some spices, which, if you squint your eyes and taste buds, looks and tastes remarkably like an omelet.  This has become Tony’s “Award Winning” specialty, along with his famous Texas BBQ (to which sadly, we’ve found no plant based substitute). We sat down to enjoy the repast, but alas… Now, I’m not one to spit out food, but this time I had to make an exception. It tasted like PURE SALT!   I did my best to soldier on, trying not to offend the cook, all the time asking pertinent questions like “What exactly did you put in this magnificent omelet?” or, “Was your head with you the entire time?”  Finally we both had...

  I know we often quote Bible verses out of context at our peril, but allow me this once! I really like it, maybe because of its poetic nature. Jehoshaphat is addressing the people of Israel in II Chronicles 20, beginning with verse 5,   Then Jehoshaphat stood in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house of the Lord, before the new court, and said: “O Lord God of our fathers, are You not God in heaven, and do You not rule over all the kingdoms of the nations, and in Your hand is there not power and might, so that no one is able to withstand You? Are You not our God, who drove out the inhabitants of this land before Your people Israel, and gave it to the descendants of Abraham Your friend forever?  This is how we felt this last week when the doctor confirmed that Tony is Cancer free and he sees no reason to think it will ever come back. “A few years ago, we would expect t...

This last week a friend of ours celebrated his 50th wedding anniversary.  I say “He” because his wife died a few years ago of an undiagnosed brain tumor just weeks after her retiring. It still breaks our hearts to think about it.  Many of you out there can identify with such a tragedy and know exactly what I mean.  I know I just keep saying this, but God has been  SO  good to us. One of the Bible studies that we lead has been looking at God’s idea of “Blessing”, and we’ve been amazed at all the references the Bible has to show us (there are many).   As our group studies together, over and over we keep coming back to that wonderful truth, that we’ve all been blessed.  Now I know, there’s a tendency among lots of churches these days to avoid that phrase, because when you say it, the unfinished thought that often communicates to others is, “…and you   haven’t   been.” We all agree that we would never want to make someone feel bad ...