Our Huge Family of Believers

 Hello Everyone, 

Wow, what a week we've had!  I can't remember when I've had so much fun and inspiration.   Tony's cousins (sorry to my cousins who got neglected; we WILL catch you next time); anyway, we all took part in a three-day “Cow Processing Event.”  I'm sure there’s a better name for it, something like, “The Great Roundup”. 

It was a pretty big learning curve for me, even watching from a distance.  Tony was able to contribute a little, although not as much as he would have liked to, due to a recovering knee. (which is doing great), It was a sight to behold, starting with cutting horses who got all the cattle in one place, separated calves from moms, then roped the appropriate ones around their back legs and drug them over for branding, snipping,vaccinating and ear tagging. We had a 9 yr old great nephew out there, as well as a 13 yr old of the same generation, who absolutely astounded us with their strength and enthusiasm, as well as “cowboy skill”. 

So let me tell you about these cows.  Our cousin's church, Denton Bible, decided about 11 years ago that a lot of their members had unused pastures.  Somehow a few cows were gifted and they started a ministry, aptly called "The Cattle Ministry". Now they have almost 100 head, grazing all over Denton county.   It's all volunteer work, right along with over 50 other ministries of this church.  Every year. 10,000 pounds or more meat is generated.  This meat goes to shelters, domestic violence centers, various recovery programs, etc.  The only 'qualifier' is that to receive meat the Love of Jesus is clearly shared with the food. 

I can't exactly articulate what went on in my heart, watching all this. Last week I talked about 'sacrifice' and seeing these 30 or 40 (who could count?) men working so hard but at the same time having so much challenging fun, just made me glad to be a part of it! Lots of sacrifices made, days off work, children out of school, but the Christian community was so edifying.  I guess that's why we had such a good week. 

Pouring thru our family history that Tony's aunt had so carefully researched before she died, made me realise that in a little spot in Texas, God still reigns.  People shake hands, slap backs and share hearts. This blog will go out as we are in the middle of my family's mini reunion up in Colorado.  It should be equally heartening. 

Then we're going to spend a week alone, catching up on everything that we haven't been doing.......(you know how it goes when you're swamped with work because you're retired). It keeps us busy and happy.

 Have a wonderful weekend and remember:wherever you are, whether home on the range or riding the plains, God is in control, always  This was underscored the other day as we went to look at the little town where Tony’s grandparents had lived in the early 1900’s. The place was a shadow of what it had been over a hundred years ago, but you could still find buildings that had survived the ravages of time. We stepped into a 'mercantile' store that’s now a knick knack shop run by a sweet lady whose love for Jesus was obvious as soon as we stepped inside.  After laughing and praying together with this new-found sister in the Lord, she bade us farewell and gave us a mug off a shelf that said, "Normal is not going to return, JESUS is!"    

Keep that in mind this week, thank God for the Family of Believers you’re a part of. I bet a lot of you have heart warming stories of faith with your ancestors as well! 

Till next time, Marsha.   

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Farewell to a Friend

Good morning,   Many of you know that we have a place in our house where we hang pictures of selected men and women. We call it our ‘Wall of Witnesses”, and it’s based on Paul’s mention of his Cloud of Witnesses in Hebrews 12:1, those who have gone before us and encourage us to run the race with perseverance.  We started our wall many years ago and now have 9 couples who we believe to have helped make us who we are. Of course you’ll see our parents there, a loving and Godly grandmother, but the other people we’ve picked up along the way, all greatly impacting our lives. Unfortunately for us, only a few of these people remain with us today, and it certainly hurt (selfishly) to hear this morning that yet another one has gone to be with the Lord.  But the good news is that he was ready. In his 90’s, now free of pain and rejoicing with his wife…… only having been separated from her for two years. His name was Howard Kroese, but he preferred to be called by his grandki...
Read more

Surprises in the Snow

 Last week I talked about three great men who impacted our lives for the good: Steve Metcalf, Eric Liddell and David Hayman. This morning, just for a break, I’d like to tell you, as that late great news commentator Paul Harvey used to say, ‘The Rest of the Story’ about Steve. Tony and I had heard this story a number of times back when we knew and often worked together with the Metcalfs, but we still shake our heads in wonder. After being released from the POW camp in China and being reunited briefly with his family, Steve went to Japan in 1952 to be a missionary.  This was to the people he had hated so much from his wartime internment camp, but thanks to his friend and fellow prisoner Eric Liddell, had learned how to forgive.  He was single, and so attacked Japanese language school with a fervor given to those who were not encumbered with family.  I look back on my own language school experience, and it still makes me tired!  We had a family, and we found that l...
Read more

A Different Kind of Tour

  Recently in Wales, we took TWO £200 tours. Luckily we've budgeted for this, so even though that's expensive (about $300 each), we were OK Both were very enlightening.  The first one took us around to several castles and into the national park of the mountains of Snowdonia.  One of the castles, called Carnarvon, is where Prince Charles became the "Prince of Wales" a few years ago (now he's the King).  I'm pretty sure C.S. Lewis must have seen this castle and used it as inspiration for “Cair Paravel”, the legendary gathering place for Aslan (read “Jesus”) in his “Lion, Witch and Wardrobe” series. We also found out that the town of Llandudno (in the Welsh language and pronounced something like “Clendendno or something) was one of the selected cities where thousands of English children were sent to be safe in WWII.  Again, right out of the C.S. Lewis series, although in his book, Lewis didn’t mention that it was only children of royal and very wealthy families w...
Read more