Proud of My Brother

At the end of March, my brother graduated from UTI in Houston with a degree in Auto Mechanics, Diesel engines and Ford FACT (this means he is Ford certified). He did an excelent job and I am certainly proud of my brother. Here are some of the pics from his graduation. He was awarded an award from UTI's military counsel. He is currently serving in the Army National Guard.




I also recently received some new pics of my niece. Please forgive me as I am a proud aunt and show off my niece.

A heart ache that benefits another

I received word on Sunday morning before church that Otilia had passed on to glory on Saturday. This, of course, caused heart ache on my part, but I kept thinking all day that now she can walk without pain, take a deep breath, has no more pain, does not have to worry about eating, and can talk to Jesus and ask Him her many questions. However, she left us behind to finish the work she started with her family. I was not able to be with the family at this time but I did contact them and tell them they are in my prayers. During, my last visit with Otilia, she was in a hospital bed in a lot of pain. Now I sit here and with tears in my eyes I can picture her in Heaven serving her Lord to the best of her ability. This helps some with the pain of losing a cherished member of my extended 'family' and while I may have heart ache here because I miss her I know that God has wiped all her tears away and she is at peace. Now I pray for her family. They have no such hope.

Father's Day? In March

That's right. Father's day in Portugal is in March, on the 19th to be exact. So last night in church we honored our fathers with a little gift. A card and a bookmark. Just a little something so that they know that we love them and are thinking of them on this day. Here are some of the pictures from our fellowship afterwards.

Catch up Time!

There have been many wonderful things going on in the last couple of weeks but I have been busy with other things so haven't written about them.
First, Sunday February 22, we had such a big blessing in our services. Almost all of the unsaved family members of our congregation were present!!! It was such a blessing!! The sad thing was watching Otilia struggle to walk into services. She has cancer and it is affecting her whole body. She can barely walk at all and has to use two cane-type crutches to get around, but she was there and she brought her husband, son and grandson with her. (her daughter-in-law is also one of the members of the church) Her daughter and family were the only ones missing but we will get them there yet. Bro. Mike preached a great message on salvation and the song service went so well with the message.

Second, I finished Nina's sweater and as soon as I can get a picture I will post it. It turned out great. It fits just right. She even likes it. That is the most important part. It was a lot of work but taught me so much about the craft of knitting. It was fun but I am glad I am done with it. Now I have time to work on another project. This one is also a gift and I don't want to say too much but will post pictures when I am done.






Third, I finished translation on one of the books that I am working on. (the smallest but it is a book) I have also finished two chapters of 'Satan's Traps.' This is a college course set of notes written by one of my professors in college. It is a good study on how to avoid the traps Satan sets in our way. I am using it as part of a study on modesty and purity for Christian young ladies. They are the two largest chapters so maybe it will get faster as I go.

Fourthly, we started practice for the ladies group. I have three ladies with the will to sing and good voices but hardly any musical training. So I started off with a round. A ROUND???? what is that you ask? It is a song that one person starts to sing and as they reach a certain part of the song the next person starts, and it just keeps going around and around like the Energizer Bunny.


Lastly, I thought I would throw in a picture of my niece. She is growing so fast and is already starting to eat solid foods. Her mom says that she loves peas and I say like mother like daughter. My sister has always loved veggies.

Well you are all caught up on what is going on around my house. I will try to be better about posting. I love all your comments and I read every one.

Silly Isrealites

As I said I have been reading in Exodus. Yesterday I read the chapters following Moses' descent from Mount Sinai. God was telling him what to do next after the golden calf incident (foolish, untrusting Israelites). I came across a verse that interested me. God was telling Moses to go up and inhabit the land that was promised to them. And then the verse God said, Exodus 33:1-2 "And the LORD said unto Moses, Depart, and go up hence, thou and the people which thou hast brought up out of the land of Egypt, unto the land which I sware unto Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, Unto thy seed will I give it: And I will send an angel before thee; and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite:" I never realized this part of the exodus story. God had told them that He would send His angel before them into the land and drive out the enemy. Ok if that is true (and of course it is God said it) than why the conflicting reports of the spies. HELLO! they all should have come back like Joshua and Caleb. Yes there are giants but our God is bigger than they are!!!!! Anyway it was a lesson to me about the consequences of not trustin Our Lord when He has told us we could trust Him.

In other news, I finished translating the book 'Stay in the Castle' by Jerry Ross. This is such an excellent book on personal purity. It is told in a 'fairy tale' way but has soo much truth in it. It was required reading at college and I think it will help young people here to realize the importance of abstainance before marriage and waiting for the one the Lord has for you instead of going your own way.

This seems to be a catch up blog post. I have completed about 3/4 of Nina's sweater and it is turning out very cool. I had to change the cuffs of it because they were not turning out right, but they look good now. I will post some pictures when I am finished.

What an AWESOME God we serve!!

I have challenged myself this year to read through the Bible. So I have been reading in Exodus and the building of the Tabernacle, and it struck me how detailed God really is. He gave the Israelites specific instructions on how to build the Tabernacle. If you read it you can see the incredible detail that He gives. It hit me that God cares about not just the big things but the tiny things as well. I knew this of course but it struck me in a diferent way this time. God wants us to be like Him so I must be detail oriented but also keep the big picture in mind when I look at the details. Kind of like a combination of Mary and Martha. Yes, be concerned with the little day to day details of our Christian lives but set those aside if it will interfer with what is truly important, our relationship with Jesus Christ. This tells me it is ok to be detail oriented but don't focas so much on the details that you forget the big things too. They all have their importance. Reading about the Tabernacle, I also see that big things are made up of small details. The Tabernacle as a whole was the place to worship God, but God gave the children of Israel the specifics. The interesting part is that all the details had to be right or the priest could not come before God. I am going to have to think some more on this subject and see what other wonders God has in this book. Isn't God GREAT!!

What in the World!!

Do you know how dangerous home improvement shows are? NO!! Well I'll tell you how dangerous they are. They give you IDEAS!!!!!
So this is what you do at 12 midnight when you have an IDEA. You move furniture. So now my piano and a comfy chair are in my craft room and I put up the knitting machine for a little while. I now have my laptop on the craft table so I can spread out to translate without my dining room table having books all over it. (It was starting to bug me.) I also switched my dining room and my living room (two ends of a big room) so that the living room is next to the fireplace. Now I have a BIG empty wall that needs filling and NO IDEAS. So back to the home improvement show. Oh well it is a viscious cycle!! If you can save me from this terrible cycle with some IDEAS, PLEASE help.