Today while on break at Samaritan’s Purse one of the ladies in the mailroom came up to talk to us. She works in the same section that Chuck is a lead. She asked Chuck if he was a minister(he has been asked that many times). He replied “oh no, I am retired”. She raised her hands out questioning, ” retired from…?”

I spoke up and told her that we had worked for another ministry for a while and now we mostly volunteer wherever we were needed. She looked at Chuck and started telling him how she felt the love of Christ coming from him and she felt he was a humble man. I agreed with her.

This is a man who compares himself to some of our friends and feels he is not very spiritual. Portraying the love of Christ from your being…isn’t that what spirituality is all about. 1Corninthians 13:1-3 says “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. 2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.

It really is all about Jesus and who He is and what He can do through us. None of us can do anything that will change lives or be counted in eternity outside of Him. Peter probably considered himself the biggest failure and the least in the kingdom at one point after denying the Lord. Yet one day he was standing among the elders, rulers, scribes and the high priest and became filled with the Holy Spirit and told them about Jesus. When they finished the word says “now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus”. Oh if we could just have that testimony…they have been with Jesus.

Chuck and I started Friday working for Samaritan’s Purse for the Christmas Child project. We are both working in the mail room. Chuck is a lead, a type of supervisor, and I work in the back doing the third check on the checks and batching them. There are a number of retired ladies from our church that are working there also. Well, most of us are in that stage of life.

Chuck and I both have worked since we were teenagers and have had many experiences with employers and fellow employees. Having also worked for another ministry and volunteering for several we really did not know what to expect.

We have so far been very very impressed with this ministry and the way they treat their employees. Everyone that is in authority has really portrayed the love of Christ in all they have done. The atmosphere is unbelievable. They have smiles on their faces and are continually thanking people for a job well done. When changes need to be made they explain it in such a way that no one if offended or put down. Wow, finally someone has got it. Sow seeds on encouragement into your employees and reap better employees.

Oh they are not lax. They run the mail room where all the money comes in with much integrity. They have high standards and expect the rules to be followed. But within those boundaries is the love of God and respect and care for each individual.

First thing every morning we have a devotional. Yesterday one of the staff members spoke on the power of the words we speak. Proverbs 18:21 “Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof”. She told us of how her husband was diagnosed with stage 4 Hodgkin’s disease the first of this year and how he got into God’s word and spoke God’s word over himself. He now has no sign of the disease.

Everyone is dismissed every two hours for a paid break and you must go. We get twenty minute break in the morning and afternoon and a lunch break of thirty minutes. Most jobs I have had in the past you were lucky to get a break and you usually worked through lunch or ate and worked. This speaks volumes to me in regard to their caring for those who work for them.

There also are many volunteers who are coming to get the Christmas boxes ready to ship. Some are coming by bus loads from different churches. If it was not for them this huge Christmas project could not be accomplished. Everything is well organized to train and use these precious volunteers and make them a vital part of Christmas Child.

We are excited to be a part of this ministry’s work and having a small part in bringing the Love of Christ to a child this Christmas. Thank you Lord for this opportunity!

Yesterday Chuck and I had to do some errands in Rock Hill, SC which is about 8-10 miles south of where we live in Fort Mill.  As we were traveling up and down the highway we became aware that the leaves were finally changing colors and they were very pretty.  This year they are about a month late.  It has to do with the drought we have been experiencing.This morning I looked up on the internet the process by which leaves change colors.  I am sure that I learned that in school, but that information is so deep in my brain cells that it could not be retrieved.  This is what I found:

Leaves are nature’s food factories. Plants take water from the ground through their roots. They take a gas called carbon dioxide from the air. Plants use sunlight to turn water and carbon dioxide into glucose. Glucose is a kind of sugar. Plants use glucose as food for energy and as a building block for growing. The way plants turn water and carbon dioxide into sugar is called photosynthesis. That means “putting together with light.” A chemical called chlorophyll helps make photosynthesis happen. Chlorophyll is what gives plants their green color.

As summer ends and autumn comes, the days get shorter and shorter. This is how the trees “know” to begin getting ready for winter.

During winter, there is not enough light or water for photosynthesis. The trees will rest, and live off the food they stored during the summer. They begin to shut down their food-making factories. The green chlorophyll disappears from the leaves. As the bright green fades away, we begin to see yellow and orange colors. Small amounts of these colors have been in the leaves all along. We just can’t see them in the summer, because they are covered up by the green chlorophyll.

The bright reds and purples we see in leaves are made mostly in the fall. In some trees, like maples, glucose is trapped in the leaves after photosynthesis stops. Sunlight and the cool nights of autumn cause the leaves turn this glucose into a red color. The brown color of trees like oaks is made from wastes left in the leaves.

It is the combination of all these things that make the beautiful colors we enjoy in the fall.

As I read this I realized that is really what happens when we enter into the fall season spiritually.  Oh yes, things that happen in the natural do happen in the spirit also.  I have been in this fall season for several months.

There are times in your life that the Lord seems to withdraw from you.  Now He says He will never leave you nor forsake you and He is true to His word.  However, there are times it feels as if He is no where around.  His voice that you love to hear is silent and visions and dreams have shut down.

Just like the trees, when the Son(sun) is not around as much we start showing our colors. You know as long as your in the presence of the Son you could love a porcupine.  But when He retreats and the checkout lady has had a bad day suddenly your red.

I have a tendency to get overwhelmed with my short comings.  They are so numerous.  However, that is not the Lord’s purpose in this fall season.  We can see that He still has work to do in us, but we can also see that He has accomplished much already.  Satan would like us to believe that we will never be any different.  But God’s words says in Philippians 1:6 “There has never been the slightest doubt in my mind that the God who started this great work in you would keep at it and bring it to a flourishing finish on the very day Christ Jesus appears.”(Message Bible)

Well, I found out that Katie had her birthday party this weekend also. I had talked to her on the phone and she told me she and several other of her girl scout friends were having a party together. However, it escaped me that it was this weekend.

Katie really seems to enjoy girl scouts. She has been to several campouts and had fun which I can tell you she did not get from Chuck and I. However, she is sleeping in a sleeping bag, but I don’t think it is in a tent in the woods. You got to believe that girls know how to camp. I don’t think I have to worry about them being on the news lost in the back woods of some mountain.

Chuck and I lost our only daughter and the Lord blessed us double for our trouble. Our daughter Catherine Michelle Williams was born in November 1966 and we have two granddaughters who were both born in November. God is so compassionate and kind.

The Lord told me about Katie coming before she was conceived. He told me she would be a joy to the family and to everyone she met. Her spiritual name is Joy and her natural name is Kaitlyn Noel(Pure Christmas, sounds like Joy to me).

Katie has had some pretty big traumas this year. First she lost her Aunt Cheryl followed shortly by the lost her great grandmother, Bebe. She changed schools and had to learn new friends and teachers and now her grandmother Peggy whom she loves dearly is very ill. What a blow for someone so small.

Even though she is petite she has a real inner strength and she is becoming a prayer warrior. She mothers her brother Andrew most of the time(until he gets into her things) and helps her dad around the house. She loves to read, which she gets from her mom, and is very smart. She also likes to dance, sing and dress up.

We are really proud of you Katie. Keep reading those books for one day I suspect you may be a teacher.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATIE!!

Nana and PawPaw love you very much.

My two grand girls are having birthdays in the next two weeks. It is hard to believe that Brittany will be 11 and Katie 8. They were so young when we moved away to follow what we believed God was calling us to do. Being away from our children and grandchildren has really been the hardest sacrifice, but God’s grace is sufficient.

Brittany is having her birthday party this weekend, a week early, because they thought she would have a free weekend for a change. Well, forget that. A soccer tournament was scheduled and she has three games. So the juggling begins.

She and her dad have headed to the soccer field to play her first game, then she will jump in the car to head to the party. Mom and Hunter have in the mean time been preparing for the party. The car will not only be a means of transportation but a dressing room. Having changed into party clothes while traveling down the road, she will then celebrate her 11th birthday.

Brittany is squeezing her party between two games. She will miss one while having her party and then return for the final game. That is dedication. We are so proud of this young lady. She is smart, polite, compassionate and disciplined. She recently got on a no sugar no white flour diet and has improved her health and lost a lot of weight. I also understand she is running at school two miles a day. Way to Go Brittany!! Now pray for Nana to do the same…all except the running, walking is fine.

Happy Birthday sweetheart from Nana and PawPaw. We love you mucho.

PS: Check out Brittany’s Birthday Party on Chuck’s World which you will find on this blog under blogroll