Tomorrow is Turkey Day!

How many of you know where you were or what you were doing on this Thanksgiving Day 30 years ago?  Today, I went to the basement to look through a box of cookbooks, hoping to find a specific one I used many years ago.    

I found a small pink notebook and inside I had written about my La Petite Boulangerie (My small bakery).   We were living on an island in the Caribbean, a French territory called Saint Barthelemy (St. Bart), about 15 miles from St. Martin (a Dutch and French island).     My little notebook recorded on 11/25/1990 that I began baking and selling my goods on that day.  

Ron was trying to start a new congregation but to meet people, he rented a small plane and several days a week, he flew to other islands to pick up fruits and vegetables to bring back to St. Bart to sell to restaurants and to the public.  He rented a small building not far from our rental house, added some refrigerators, placed tables around the room and displayed the many things be brought back from other islands in the Caribbean.   He opened it to the public from 12:00 to 3:00 P.M. several days a week.   At 4:00 he loaded up our van and took orders to restaurants all over the island.    He brought back conch and other specific items as requested by the restaurant owners.   It was a little income for us but mostly it was a way to get to know the people on the island in hopes of teaching some of them the gospel.  It was a Catholic island and French people, many speaking a creole French, so it was difficult for Americans to be accepted by the locals.  Our small business helped a lot in that way but we did not convert anyone in the 2-l/2 years we lived there.   We mostly had tourists attending our services.

My little bakery began to give me something to do and items to sell at Ron's little market each day.   I started baking right after breakfast each morning (7:30 a.m. and baked until noon).  I covered flat boxes with contact paper and filled it with small loaf-size cellophane wrapped loaves of bread and cakes, zip-lock bags of cookies, fried pies and muffins. I labeled what each was and the price on small sticker-type labels.  Everything was sold each day.    I began to get requests for special cakes and I baked those extra items and put the person's name on the item so it would not be sold to anyone else. 

I got special orders for pizzas, which was surprising because there were some really good pizza restaurants on the island.  People came by the house to pick them up as they were just out of the oven so they would be fresh and hot.  It was usually a family heading to the beach and wanted a pizza for lunch.   A couple of guys (homosexuals) from New York had a rental house close to us and they came by the house often to pick up sacks of muffins that I baked special at their requests.   They owned a Hermes shop in New York (so they told me) and if  you know of that designer of scarves and accessories, you know what an expensive shop they owned.  They were really friendly and nice.   It was a safe island with no crime and I was never afraid there.  

I continued my small bakery until we began to pack to leave the island to go to Montreal, Quebec, Canada.   My last entry in the book is dated June 4, 1991.   Converting the income from the French franc to U.S. dollars, I recorded:

November - December $939.00

January $999.00

February  $1,166.00

March  $807.00

April  $100.00

May $472.00

 Also, 50 pizzas baked in 6 months (50 x $10).    

Total amount sold, excluding pizzas was $4,513 (we considered l/2 profit after buying the ingredients).

The remarkable thing about this small business endeavor is that I was coming down with an autoimmune disease unknown to me and most others, including doctors.  It is called Sjogren's Syndrome.   My first symptom was dry eyes.   I have no moisture/tears to this day.  My eyes were hurting so badly that the baking was my way to keep my mind off my pain for at least l/2 of each day.   It is a very long story to explain the progress of the disease and what I went through for several more years.   It is the reason we left St. Barts and went to Canada.    I needed testing, medications and doctors to relieve my pain.   Ron had an opportunity to work with a church that needed us badly so we made the decision to move.   We lived in Montreal for the next seven years (1991 - 1998) and worked with people speaking five different languages in this one congregation. We moved to Nashville, TN and began the

mission work in China in 1998.   

I just thought I would reminisce about what was happening with me 30 years ago tomorrow.  God has blessed our years and work and we have many things to be thankful for on this special day to reflect on past and present blessings.

Wishing all a happy Thanksgiving.   Thank you again for following our work.  God bless you!

Wishing everyone a happy Thanksgiving holiday!

This is an important time of the year for most of us.   While it may be because of the good food we enjoy, it means much more than just enjoying a good meal.   For many, it will be a sad time because families cannot be together.   It may be sad because a family member's place is left empty because they have passed away.  It may be even harder for some people this year with COVID-19 interrupting all of our lives.    My hope is that all of my followers, friends, family and supporters of our mission work are well and thankful for our many blessings.  Hard times just mean that we hunker down, keep our faith and continue to move forward until things get better.    

Thankfulness should be in the hearts of everyone.   God blesses us even when we are not deserving or appreciative.    We often overlook the many good things in our lives when things do not go our way.  Even winter brings on the blues and we grumble.   I was thinking this morning as it is very cold in North Georgia, how thankful I am that I did not live during the pioneer days when life was one disaster after another.   If you are old enough to remember "The Little House on the Prairie" you know what I mean.  Many of our mothers and grandmothers lived through very hard times compared to what we go through these days.

Solomon in his wisdom, reminds us that to everything there is a season and a time for us to rejoice and a time to be sad.    

When I think of those who have lost jobs, worried about how they will live and support their families, our worries are minor.   Just focus on your blessings, as I try to do, and be thankful.   God is with us and who can be against us?   

In the Philippines, our son and daughter-in-law's orphanage is caring for children who would be wandering the streets looking for food.   Our girls in the safe houses in Thailand, Nepal and Laos would be living in shacks during the cold winter and have nothing more than a bowl of rice each day.   Some are so poor they go into the forest to look for food just as the animals have to do to survive.   What hope do these people have?   Where is their joy and thankfulness?

Reflecting on these things, I just want to wish everyone a very HAPPY THANKSGIVING and encourage you to be THANKFUL.

Thank you to all who help with our mission work to provide a better life for others and give them a hope of Heaven.

God bless you all.

November - what can I say that is good about it so far?

Forgive me for rambling in this post because there have been so many things happening lately.   Some good and some things not so good.   

We had the remnants of a tropical storm hit early one morning with 55 mph winds for four hours.    When it was light enough to see outside, it looked like a war zone with tree limbs down everywhere.   No trees fell and all limbs were small enough to remove easily but I have spent two weeks just picking up limbs.  We lost power for a short time and were blessed much more than the people of Louisiana who were without power for up to a week in some areas.   Our yard again looks like the pictures I posted in the last blog segment after many hours of hard work.       

The election was a disturbing mess and continues to be unsettled.   Georgia will go through a recount but they were still counting ballots today.   President Trump was right to predict the mail-in ballots would create a huge problem.    There were many irregularities and yet I doubt it is enough to change the outcome.    We did lose sleep two night as we anxiously listened for the results.    There is nothing more we can do but pray for our leaders and our nation.    

I sprained my foot on Saturday afternoon.     I worked hard in the yard most of the day and came in to rest in my easy chair.   After checking emails and reading the news, I got up to go take a shower.   I managed to put my computer on the small table in my office before I had a very hard fall.   My right foot had gone to sleep but I did not feel it.    It gave way and I fell, hitting my head on my office chair and making a big noise.   Ron was in his office and heard it so he rushed in to help me up.   I could not get up because my foot was sprained.   We got my tennis shoe off and put an ice pack on it.   I managed to pull up enough to get to a bed and with ibuprofen and the ice pack, I got some relief in about an hour.  Now, two days later, my foot is swollen and black across the top and on both sides of the ankle.   I can walk without much pain but it will take a while to heel.

The saying I saw on Facebook comes to mind...."Is that promise my mother made to slap me to the next year still open?"    2020 has been a year none of us will forget.    Often, when Ron asks when something happened, I have to remember how old our kids were or where we were living at the time to figure it out.  I don't think we will forgot anything that we have experienced in 2020 and yet there are blessings galore.   We must remember to count them when things are not going exactly as we wish.     

Ron is trying to get an appointment to have his painful shoulder checked but with the pandemic, a simple doctor appointment is not simple.    I need two more dental appointments and with things happening, it is hard to know when to schedule them and I really rather not go out with the pandemic raging again anyway.

We lost a friend in Texas to cancer last week and today Leigh Ann (our daughter) lost a friend of 35 years to brain cancer.    A couple of weeks ago, a friend in Alabama lost her husband with a stroke.  Life is precious and even when we have the many ups and downs, we still should be thankful for each day of life.   Don't forget to tell those you love how much you love them each day.    

On a cheerful note, my niece in Oxford, Mississippi became a grandmother this week and they are so delighted to welcome Lewis into the world.    

Ronald (our son who has the orphanage in the Philippines) wrote that they have a new boy 10 years old.  When I want to feel sorry for myself, I remember children that have gone through so much more than I will ever experience.   This little boy's mother died of cancer.   There is no mention of a father.  He was living with his grandmother but going around to neighbors begging for food.   They are very poor and have nothing.   Can we put ourselves into the plight of this grandmother or that little boy?    How blessed we are and how ungrateful we are to complain about things.    

Some  years ago while we were working in China, I remember thinking of those mothers that abandoned their babies. It was different from uncaring mothers aborting their unborn babies.    These mothers were so desperate they would leave their babies in the cover of night, wrapped tightly in old clothes and lay them near a place where someone would find them,   How many of these women cried their entire lives for the children they were not allowed to keep?   What pain they must have had.    How happy could you be wondering if your child lived and was cared for? 

Our work in Asia continues without any problems.   None of our girls or workers are sick.    Many have suffered in Laos from recent flooding.  Ron will report by newsletter when he gets a report from our workers and how they have been able to help Christians who lost homes and needed food.   Today, I read where a typhoon is hitting Viet Nam and Cambodia with severe flooding.   It is a constant problem for poor people from Nicaragua last week to these people this week in Asia to suffer losses.   When we realize that 80% of the world's population lives in poverty and are continually enduring storms and earthquakes, we should thank God every day for our many blessings in America.   

Keep your focus on life and what is really important and don't let trivial things get you down and ruin your day.   My daughter, Leigh Ann, has posted on the Facebook page something like this:  "Live each day as if was your last."    Cherish each day you wake up and each night when you can lie down in a comfortable bed, safe and without hunger.

I am sorry I got carried away with my focus on us not being appreciative enough.   But it is a lesson we all need to think about.    

With love to all of my friends and family...and to those who care about us and our work that I do not even know very well...May God bless you.