We are now in Ohio at a State Park. The weather is really lovely, JK. It is raining and one town about 20 minutes away had sleet. The temperature has dropped too so it is about 40 degrees here. Not too bad if it wasn't so windy. We are preparing for the Kentucky Derby which is coming up fast. We have people coming from NY, FL, OH, IL, etc. It will be 2 very long days. Praying that we get some good conversations. Missing friends from down south more and more.

Helplessly Homesick

Well, we are finally leaving to go up north. It is so hard to be leaving our family and friends for a while. We are in Alabama right now and are heading up to Ohio for a couple weeks and then we have the Kentucky Derby. We were blessed to be able to go home this past Sunday morning for service. The preaching was great and the singing was wonderful. No Church can sing quite like ours. (Yes, I am biased) We will be back in October and I am sure it will go fast just not fast enough. Let's just say, I can't wait to get home!

Satisfied

Reading tastes

Well, recently I have been having a discussion over the Internet about reading tastes and then a friend and I were talking about the books we read and I thought that maybe it would make for a good post and it might help somebody. It started with someone asking what I thought about reading books that were not Christian and how much do I allow in my books. First I am going to give the Bible verses I gave her and then I am going to give what are my standards but they are my personal convictions.
1.Phil 4:8. "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things". Personally I think this verse really sets out what should be the standard for any Christian in anything in their life, but I really think it is pretty clear for what we read.
2.Romans 14:21 "It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak". This is something else I have thought of before. I need to make sure what I read is not a stumbling block to another Brother or Sister in Christ.
3. "Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity". Now I know this is not necessarily talking about what I read but to me it tells me I need to be an example. Which we all are an example, either a good one or a bad one, but I want to be a good one to those around me.
Now, this is where I am going to talk about my convictions. These are my personal preferences for what I read. This person I was dealing with over the Internet asked me about how much profanity, relationships, violence, etc I allow in my books. Personally, I have read books where I had to mark out one swear word, etc. I will allow 2 words, otherwise I get rid of the book. As for the relationships it is kind of hard. I know people who will not read books with any holding hands, kissing, etc. Even if it is a married couple. Personally, I will allow a little, especially if it is a married couple in the book. The one friend I was talking to about this said he had some problems with one fiction series because of all the touching in them. There are some Christian fiction books though that I can't even read because it is explicit in the relationships. I also don't allow fornication, or adultery. That is not something that I believe is allowable even in a fiction book. This person also asked me about non-Christian books. I read a few, mainly non-fiction, and my younger siblings read some older fiction books. There might be some good books out there that are not Christian, but they are very few. Books out there are getting worse and worse. I believe as Christians we need to stand up against these things, but how can we if we are reading them? Or we are reading the Christian things that have the same stuff in them? One last thing she asked me about which I don't think I need to get into was, do you read any fantasy or para-normal books? To me that is definitely out of the picture for any Christian.
If anyone has any thoughts on this, please email and let me know. Hope I haven't gotten anyone upset with this.:)

Some Friends at Our Home Church

Here is my sister with one of the little girls I watched this past week. She is a real sweetheart:D

Here are some of the little boys from my Church.

Here is one of the ladies from our Church, Mrs. Kim, with her little girl, Christina. (She doesn't like her picture being taken as you can see from the closed eyes:P)

This is one of the cute little boys I was watching this past week.

As you can see, our Church has many cute children. They are all a blessing.

Our Weekend of Street Preaching

Well, it has been an interesting weekend. We went out street preaching for Spring Break in Panama City, FL. Many of the members of our Home Church came out with us. It was a real blessing going out. We were able to talk to a few people who were walking down the sidewalk and

we had a lot of conversations with the people in vehicles. Hopefully some of them listened. It is sad to see all the people who think they are saved and are either not saved, or they are not following the Lord. We dealt with three girls who, two of them are Baptist and one is Pentecostal, they said we were doing it the wrong way. They said we were only showing anger and calling people names. By the end of the conversation the one girl was crying because we were making her job harder. She couldn't see that the reason we are out there is because we care. Many of those people will never walk into a Church. Hopefully they will read the signs, hear the Scripture or even get preached at and get mad enough to go home and open a Bible and read it. We did get out some tracts also which many put in their pockets. Overall it was a very good time and hopefully we can go out again next week.

A Busy But Satisfying Week.

Well, this week has been very busy. We are finally back at our Home Church and everything is like normal. I personally have been helping one of the ladies here by watching her children for her so she can sew and plan for a wedding that is coming up. They have 7 children so it is a full-time job watching them but it is fun. The youngest is an adorable little girl and then the next 3 boys(who are all boy) are so fun to be around! They found two frogs the other day and thought they were the greatest thing. Of course, younger sister had to play with them too:D It makes for a busy time but I enjoy it. I love children and these little ones are very cute. We have also been working on Masters Club with many of the children here at our Home Church. Timing while doing relays, quizzing on Bible verses, etc. The big event is the end of this month in Pensacola which is always fun. So, while it has been a busy week, it has been very satisfying and fun.