Charity's challange

Here is my fourth picture from my fourth file. It is from Colorado this past summer when Greg went to see the grands. It is a picture of Iona at Elich Water Park.

Not sure who I can challange to post a picture most everyone who reads my Blog has done it. LOL I am not a well read blog......

What has been going on in our life here in Gridley? Wel......

We had a funeral at our church yesterday. The place was packed out. A young man who was in the gangs was shot & killed last Monday. Last Sunday he was in our church & raised his hand for salvation. His brother is a member of our church. Needless to say our pastor had a standing room only crowd yesterday to hear a salvation message at his funeral. God always uses things for his purpose. Keep the family in pray the young man had a month old daughter & his family is all Jehovah Witness but allowed the funeral to be held in our church & were amazed at the service we gave them with food afterwards & serving them. A seed has been planted. Praise God!

Random thoughts from Heathers blog

Thought I would post my random thoughts here from Heathers blog

1. Where were you 3 hours ago?At work pulling my hair out LOL
2. Who are you in love with?Jesus... My husband... my children... my grandchildren
3. Have you ever eaten a crayon?Don't think we had crayons in the dark ages lol
4. Is there anything pink within 10 feet of you?Yes, a geod can't spell but you know one of those rocks cut in half?
5. When is the last time you went to the mall?Monday to the verizon store cuz I"m a dork
6. Are you wearing socks right now?nope.
7. Do you have a car worth over $2,000?I think so but in today economie who knows...
8. When was the last time you drove out of town?Saturday to Alamo not to be confused with theTx one, for ecky fish.
9. Have you been to the movies in the last 5 days?No who can afford the prices????
10. Are you hot?just cozzy
11. What was the last thing you had to drink?Ice Tea
12. What are you wearing right now?Grey pj bottoms & old navy thermal
13. Do you wash your car or let the car wash do it?The husband does it
14. Last food that you ate?Wicked oatmeal white chocolate & cranberry cookie
15. Where were you last week at this time?Home??
16. Have you bought any clothing items in the last week?2 shirts & 2 pants
17. When is the last time you ran?ran where? my makeup ran on Christmas day does that count?
18. What's the last sporting event you watched?WWE last night....what? not a sporting event????
19. What is your favorite animal?DUH......a dog?????
20. Your dream vacation?LONG
21. Last person's house you were in?Charity & Bill's house after ecky fish
22. Worst injury you've ever had?Rose thorn in thumb
23. Have you been in love?Yes, still am.
24. Do you miss anyone right now?MY Hezzy
25. Last play you saw?Christmas childrens play the Sunday before Christmas
26. What is your secret weapon to lure in the opposite sex?Who want to lure them???? You crazy???
27. What are your plans for tonight?Dinner, relax, sleep
28. Who is the last person you sent a MySpace message or comment?no my space
29. Next trip you are going to take?gee probley Stocton
30. Ever go to camp?Of course what a silly question we are camping fiends
31. Were you an honor roll student in school?nope
32. What do you want to know about the future?not much
33. Are you wearing any perfume or cologne?O de laura
34. Are you due sometime this year for a doctor's visit?Since the yr just started sure
35. Where is your best friend?in the bedroom
36. How is your best friend?awesome
37. Do you have a tan?Surely you jest.....
38. What are you listening to right now?My aero garden humm
39. Do you collect anything?Cats real & fake though the husband has drawn a line on the real ones....
40. Who is the biggest gossiper you know?V
41. Last time you got stopped by a cop or pulled over?can't remember
42. Have you ever drank your soda from a straw?Yes...
43. What does your last text message say?Some body stole my computer
44. Do you like hot sauce?Yes,
45. Last time you took a shower?This morning
46. Do you need to do laundry?yes
47. What is your heritage?1/2 Irish, 1/2 Norwegian (aka ecky fish lover)
48. Are you someone's best friend?I hope so
49. Are you rich?in spirit
50. What were you doing at 12AM last night?Sleeping

I didn't have to wait until the end of the week!

For things to change. WOW. With the stressful week we have every month for triple check we also have auditors here to look over our work to see if we are capturing all the revenue we can, after all the company is in this to make a profit. My new job that I started in June is a direct result of what kind of revenue we get. In other words what I do gets us paid. How well I do it etc. So I am talking to the auditor because she asked for some paperwork & she starts telling me just what she does & we start talking about the job. She proceeds to tell me I am doing a great job that she has not found much I have missed in recovering revenue. Of course I am saying well I am trying hard to learn the job, bla bla bla. She says well no one really gets the job down until 5 years of doing it, and you have only been doing this for 1-2 years so don't be hard on yourself. Then I tell her I have just started doing this job 6 months ago. Not trying to brag but her face was like "WHAT" then she says these exact words "You are doing a Phenomenal job!" She asks me if I am an RN since usually the person doing my job is a RN & I say nope I am a LVN. Again she is like what? You really know this job well. I tell her my background in Auditing for Hospitals etc & she says she is going to sing my praises to the corperate office. That they would be stupid to replace me with a RN. They would rather a RN was the MDS coodinator instead of a LVN but they can't pay the RN enough to make them want to do it.
Got to admit this gave me a much needed feel good about myself shot in the arm. I was really worried about what they would find & tell me I was doing wrong. I did not get much teaching on how to do this job it has been a bit of trial & error. And I hate error.....lol

Bad week

Who thought this week was the week to mess with me??? Huh??HUH?? It has been a rough 3 days. After a great visit to The Halverson Family Annual Lutafisk Dinner in Alamo, Ca & the outstanding preaching By Pastor Joey on Sunday you would think my week would be great. Right??? Well you & I were both wrong........ we get home from Stocton Sunday afternoon & as we are unloading the car I go into my bedroom & think....humm where is my laptop? I had left my laptop beside my bed. I was watching the Hawk Nelson You Tube "One Little Miracle" from Sacramento & crying. BTW you have to go watch their 2 videos on www.hawknelson.com . Awesome. Anyway I am thinking where the heck is my computer??? I go look in the craftroom were Cassie is sleeping, the extra room where Dylan is sleeping, NO computer. A crowded house but no computer. I get panicy & go look in the living room, yes all game systems are there, TV is there, Quad is in garage. Humm. I call Cassie, & Dylan. No they did not take or use my computer.
Greg joins the hunt, no luck. No computer. I check the sliding door in our room & it is unlocked. Who knows for how long, this is Gridley for goodness sake. Cassie said she closed our bedroom door when she left for work because we have a scavanger dog who gets into stuff. We figure someone came into the room, took the computer, looked around cuz we found stuff out of the box of Christmas gifts Greg got & the stuff was not chewed on so it could not have been the dog. He only takes stuff out of boxes to chew on it. LOL Then hearing the dogs barking in the rest of the house they left. Luckly with nothing else. Now I know I need a new computer, I have been babying this one along since Oct. But I feel so upset that someone was in my house. We locked all the doors & took in our extra key in.
On the bright side someone got a lemon of a computer. And Dylan got locked out because he never takes his key with him & always uses the extra one. Well that's not funny. He could not wake anyone up so he had to go stay elsewhere. Bet he remembers his key from now on!
I bet your wondering how I am posting with no computer...I am using Greg's. I could use the Storm but typing a long post on the touch screen would drive me nuts. LOL
It is triple check week at work, so is very stressfull. But I listened to praise music all day today & yesterday. I am hoping for a better end to my week!

Enjoying the Storm

No it is not storming in Gridley, yet anyway. But I did get a new phone yesterday. You guessed it it was the Storm. I was not a Blackberry person before except for maybe yogurt & jam. I thought it had stuff I did not need, I loved my Treo. But one look at the cool features of the Storm & I was itching to get my hands on it. After playing with it last night I was very confused, man you need a degree to figure this phone out! But today I have a better handle on using it effectively. Where the palm Treo relied on the stylist or you could use your fingers. The storm is a touch screen also but you have to make sure the thing you want is "blue" & then you "click it". At first I thought it was a hassle & thought for a minute " what did you buy!!!" I never get myself the latest & greatest anything. Today though I enjoyed it more & am very glad I bought it. If only to make everyone at work envious........ silly me that is not the reason. We recieved a Christmas Bonus at work & Greg bought a PS3. I was not thinking I wanted anything big until Charity( who has gone to the dark side...ATT) got an IPhone & Bill wanted to go look at the Storms. Needless to say we both got one. I think I will enjoy this Storm!

Christmas

I thought I better blog before Christmas but I am soo busy. But here are a couple pictures.

A Journey of Faith.............

Well this is going to be long I suggest you get a cup of coffee, glass of OJ or whatever you enjoy drinking.....pull up a comfie chair& read on...........





I am not sure how to start this, hummmm God is awesome....of course. God always knows what road we are on..........DUH! God has plans we never could imagine............WOW!





My story starts about 7 1/2 years ago. We had moved to Vacaville, Ca. to be near our daughter Charity, sil Bill & grandson Aslan. They were youth pastors there. While we were living there Charity became pregant with Miss Selah. About 2 months before Selah was born they moved to the Concord area to help another ministry. This move was not a planned move for them & needless to say there were some hurt feelings in our family & many questions to God asking honestly "What The HECK?????" But my wonderful children just did what God told them to do & without a backwards glance or if it had been me a snear. They followed the journey God set before them, and boy what a journey.





From Concord they went to Vallejo to help assist Bill's uncle Trace with his church. This indeed looked like the place to start a youth ministry that had been in their hearts forever. But God had other plans........just after getting to Vallejo Trace had a heart attack & died. This left Bill & Charity as pastors of the church in Vallejo. Not youth pastors but Senior Pastors of a small group of lovely people. Having never been Senior Pastors this was a growing time for them.





One night they were invited to Roseville to speak at a youth group. They left Aslan & Selah with us. Heather my other dd & her 2 kids were there & all the kids were watching movies & having fun when we see Selah who is about 2 come into the kitchen, take my bible & start turning pages. She is intently running her fingers up & down the print like she is reading the scripture. Heather & I watched her for about 10 minutes. Now this is a child that seldom sat still, after all she was 2. She was not usually so intense. So.............. We did what comes naturally to 2 scrappers, we took pictures. Then we looked to see where she was reading in the bible.

She was reading Psalms 78: 4 We will not hide them from their children; we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the LORD, his power, and the wonders he has done.
5 He decreed statutes for Jacob and established the law in Israel, which he commanded our forefathers to teach their children, 6 so the next generation would know them, even the children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children.

We left these pictures & the scripture verse for them when they picked up the kids. When we talked to them the next day, they told us that about the time Selah picked up the bible they had been praying at the service & felt the Lord call them back into Youth Ministry.

So off they journey to the land of Youth Ministry AGAIN. They let the district know they were looking to find a church for youth ministry. Up pops this Pastor in Gridley, Ca offering a job & house to a youth pastor. "Gridley" we all say?? Where in the world is that? After deciding that Gridley was in the middle of the Rice Farming area & a bit in the sticks, they assured us that they were just going for the interview with Pastor Deaton to be nice. They really felt that the Sacramento area was where they would end up. As usual God has other plans........ they came back so excited having fallen in love with the Pastors in Gridley & the area. They packed up & wandered off to Gridley.

We on the other hand during all this traveling they have done from Concord to Vallejo to Gridley, started attending a Non-denominational Church The Fathers House in Vacaville. After Selah was born Charity came to a weekend ladies retreat with me. At this retreat the speaker had us write on rocks our dreams & visions of what God had for us & put them in a mesh sack. About 2 month ago during a time Charity was having a hard time she found them. She posted about them on her blog. It brought tears to my eyes. You can read it here:

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

God's promises on pebbles
So today I had an actual day off where I didn't have to go anywhere, So I cleaned under my bed, my closet and cleaned out my drawer, boy was it fun!!! In the meantime I was listening to Joyce Meyer, Ed YOung and Hillsong in the background. First Joyce talking about our attitude toward change, then Ed talking about change and then Hillsong talking about how we deal with the seasons in our lives, like when it feels like things are stacking up against you etc. Very interesting how the 'theme thing' always happens to me, God loves to talk to me like that. So in the midst of all of this, and the drawer cleaning I came across a little mesh back with some smooth stones in it. I remember very well what those were but haven't looked at them in years. At a womens retreat shortly after Selah was born a speaker handed out the stones and asked us to ask God what dreams and visions he may have for us, and then write them down. I remember thinking at the time that the things I wrote on the stones were pretty out there, maybe even fleshlly, because 3 out of 5 were a stretch. But today looking at them, it was definetly a 'God-moment'1. Aslan-the prophecy over him that he would have a "moses spirit" ( that's a story for another time if you have not heard it, but in brief it came from 4 totally unrelated sources, from the time I was pregnant to when he was born ill, that he would have a moses spirit- and Moses is the only one who spoke face to face with God) anyway 2. Selah would be a woman of God- So these were the two softballs, what every mother desires for their children, no surprise there. then comes #3 That I would speak to women/girls someday- weird thing was at the time, I had never preached a sermon , (except once in high school) and that seemed like a huge stretch for me, but in case you guys don't know I have now been speaking at camps and conferences for almost 3 years, wow how God knows when we have no clue.4.That we would have a youth ministry that people would pattern theres after- This actually happened when we first moved to Gridley- 3 seperate youth pastors that came and started using the ideas to bring back to their church. So odd5. (Now this one confused me, it wasn't neccessarily a dream or vision so I'm not sure why I wrote it) but the weirdest thing is that today it was exactly what I needed to hear, it so amazes me how God works , I shouldn't be surprised but it surprises me everytime. I know you want to know what it said but Im not going to tell you! :pOk ok just kidding 5. Though the vision tarry wait for it....This may mean nothing to you, but the life and times Bill and I are in it means everything so in case you are questioning, or wondering maybe this will encourage you too or maybe try to put something on paper and see what God may do with it in a few years or maybe try some stones in a little mesh bag with a sharpie, it worked for me ....

Now you are probley wiping your eyes like me or maybe saying what does this have to do with your story Laura?????? EVERYTHING!
Though the vision tarries wait for it.......... WOW. This makes us think something is in the breeze you know that God breeze? I figure it is a big break out at church. But as usual I am only partly right. Charity & Bill had been feeling that it was time to move on, that God was saying their time here in Gridley was wonderful but He had more up his sleeve. About the time they make the decission to branch out....step out in Faith......move to another house.......wham God shows up. You know those camps Charity said she started speaking at in her blog entry above? Well thoses camps are Donnie Moore Radicial Reality Camps. Charity was a student at one of those camps as a teen. Now she & Bill are featured speakers at the camps workshops. Well it seems Donnie Moore & Joey Steelman just love Bill & Charity & have been watching their ministry & intregity since Vacaville. I am guessing they liked what they saw because Joey is becoming a pastor in Stockton at an AOG church & asked them to come help. Then Donnie who lost his adminstrator a few months ago interviewed Charity for the position. Can you say WOW!

Well you probley have guessed it.... Bill, Charity, Alsan & Selah are moving to Stockton, Ca. Am I Mom excited? Well????? yes in my spirit I KNOW this is God. I know God has exciting things for them there. I know they have been good stewards over little & now much is being given to them. In the face of crisis in Vacaville in 2001 they had a choice to turn the God direction or the human, "this is so wrong" direction and become bitter. Have they always made the correct choices on this journey? No, I know they have had stumbles, falls, scratches on the knees along the way. But I do know along the way they always turned to God when the darkness threatened to overwhelm them and God in his mercy, seeing their hearts for His young people picked them up, bandaged their injuries & gave then pebbles in mesh bags to strenghten them when the journey seemed overwhelming. Though the vision tarry wait...............

As a mom I am very sad. I will miss them, it is hard to see them go. I am batteling the mom/spirit thing. Mom is sad/Spirit is happy. Silly spirit. ;) I wrote this to say to Charity & Bill that I am proud of you for what you have done & what you are going to do. But I will be sad a bit.
love you mom

PS you can read about the exciting adventure on Charity's blog http://hartmans1996.blogspot.com/