Baptism Details

I am going to be baptized. For the second time. Sunday evening. 6:00pm. Butler Community Alliance Church. You are welcome to come. It will not be the big event that I had thought it might be. I will share the service with about 20 other people also getting baptized. Maybe that is God's gentle reminder that's it's not really all about me. I am still sure that this is the right time and place for this. Here is my story I am going to share:

My parents, in the custom of their church, had me baptized as an infant, and took me to church faithfully as a child. When I was 17 and trying to decide what to do with the rest of my life I had a theology to base it on. I had memorized the answers to the big questions in second grade. Who made me? God made me. Why did God make me? God made me to know Him, love Him, serve Him in this world, and be happy with Him in heaven. So if I was to serve God, I must first get to know him. As I began to figure out how to get to know God, a friend literally read the four Spiritual Laws booklet with me.

1.God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.

2.Man is sinful and separated from God.

3.Jesus Christ is God's only provision for man's sin.

I knew all of this. But number 4 was something new to me. And it was just what I was looking for—a personal relationship with God.
4.We must individually receive Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord;then we can know and experience God's love and plan for our lives.
So that night in the fall of my freshman year in a dorm room at Penn State I prayed and asked Jesus to be the Lord of my life and began a relationship with Him.

Because I had already been baptized and because it wasn’t necessary for my salvation, I was never baptized as an adult. I grew up, became a pastor’s wife, and served the Lord as I continued to get to know Him.

This last year of my life I have stepped back from ministry and what I discovered is how much God loves me. Whether I serve Him or not. Somehow, I had gone from knowing Him to serving Him and missed the loving Him part. Today I have a deeper understanding of not only Who God is but that I can love because He first loved me. Enough to die for me.

So my desire in being baptized is to declare my love for the God Who made me, loved me, died and rose again for me, and sings over me.

The LORD your God is with you, He is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you. He will quiet you with His love. He will rejoice over you with singing.

Zephaniah 3:17

The good news is that since I didn't get to plan the service I will not be singing. But that's okay, because God will be.

All Together

For the last several years, every time we are all together I say, "Who knows when we will be all together again." Today we all finally felt it. Abi, Jimmy and Claire go back to New York tomorrow. Stasi and Micah leave for Slovakia next Thursday. God is preparing a place for the rest of us in Wyoming. But today here are my four most favorite women in the whole world. All together. In Ohio of all places.

Other Things I Planted This Week

How much of God's creation is unseen by most of us?

I am amazed by this little fungus. Green fuzzy with yellow centers on the top of the agar. The underside of this same fungus is red. (Do you wonder what would happen if the plates were incubated right side up instead of upside down?) The blue is a stain that allows the microscopic structure to be seen more clearly. This fungus has both macro and micro conidia. So many creative details. So unique. I am amazed that the One Who created the planets and stars, mountains and oceans designed something this small and intricate. Talk about fine motor skills.

Azalea, Clematis, Iris, Lilac

Grandpa, Is That You?

I was cleaning out my jewelry box. You might not think this is too hard because I only have two pieces of jewelry that I wear and one of those hasn't fit me for years. (Thus the need for a jewelry box--a place to keep my wedding ring.) Why then do I have a box full of things? Because some of them are just treasures. I found about a dozen baby teeth from various of my children. A couple of letters to the tooth fairy and one long list addressed to Santa. A few precious necklaces purchased with love at the Santa Shop or the Vacation Bible School store. (I wore one of these to Abi's wedding to pay them back for all their thoughtful gifts over the years.) I found photo buttons from several soccer and band seasons. (Dave is wearing these around the house now. I refuse to ask him why.) An old pair of eyeglasses. A hospital bracelet I must have worn while giving birth. A few other trinkets, bracelets, rings, and one badly tarnished necklace with 4 little hinged people with birthstones in their bellies.
And this vial of dirt. It is a small plastic tupperware-like container with a tightly fitting lid. It is about half full of a fine gray powder. I have no idea what it is or where it came from or why I have it. Amanda says, "Grandpa, is that you?" and we all collapse laughing. So if you know what (or who) this is and if I should keep it please let me know.
I have now put 4 empty vials in my underwear drawer, so that when my kids meet there after my death, they will have their containers for my ashes ready. Sadly, when I went to my underwear drawer there was no underwear in it today. If I didn't have so much laundry to do I would tell you why I was cleaning out my jewelry box.

Leap Frog

Of the origami variety...

Me and My Mom

My Mom does not speak Spanish, she is voice mail challenged, but she knows what to do with a head of cauliflower. Likewise, I don't speak Spanish, am cell phone challenged, and if I could find the recipe for cauliflower salad I'm pretty sure I could make it. Like mother, like daughter.

Sick To My Stomach

This morning my stomach is upset. I drove Alex to school with the uncomfortable feeling that I might throw up at any minute. If this is a bug I picked up somewhere we might all get it. I warned Alex that if he felt this way he should have the nurse call me if he felt sick. He wondered if he could just call if he wanted to come home with the excuse that someone in his family was ill. (This was a 'no'.) Then it hit him that the Grandmas were in danger. (Happy Mother's Day--I brought you a hanging plant and a stomach virus...) We decided there was no need to warn them since they were already infected if they were going to be. Alex and I have scarily similar thought processes. Hopefully today we are only sharing brainwaves and not a stomach virus as well.

Where The Deer and The Antelope Play

When we sent out our family picture I tried to crop out the elk head that was mounted on the wall behind our heads. I should have left it in the copy we sent to Greybull. In Big Horn County this kind of thing is worth big points. Several people commented on it, had questions about it, were dissappointed we hadn't mounted it ourselves. Incidentally, no one had any questions or comments about my children or my grandbaby. Not "Isn't she adorable?", just "How big was the rack?" You can tell something about people by the questions they ask. When Dave and I had a motorcycle accident after being married just 6 months I overheard his friend ask, "How's the bike?" I thought a more appropriate question might be "How's your wife?" I'm just saying. Anyway, we were in one living room with a big horn sheep (I think) and an antelope where the conversation went something like this:

It was 19 inches.

I couldn't believe it.

I measured it myself.

Is it in the book?

Oh, yeah. It's fifth in the state. Someteenth in the world.

They were talking about the antelope. I must admit I am ignorant of most things antelope related. I'm still trying to figure out if they are real or mythical. (The whole jackalope thing has me confused.) I wanted to know exactly what part of the antelope were they measuring. And exactly what book is 'the book' you would put something like this in. Maybe the missing book of the histories is in Wyoming. (I didn't need to know these things bad enough to ask them out loud.)

My plan is to keep my ears open and my mouth shut. I think my ignorance will be plenty evident.

I'm sure coyotes are real.

Play Fair

We had tea with the game warden. He monitors video game usage in Big Horn County for the state of Wyoming. His wife says he also is in charge of making sure words used in Scrabble are really words. I also played a new game called Bananagrams which is basically Scrabble (packed in a banana) without the board and the scoring numbers. It does still have 'Z's and 'Q's. Which you would have to mind if you were playing at the game warden's house.

First Impressions

Here I am with the grey bull himself. Plus some pics from the monutains yesterday. As always, pictures never do God's creation justice. Although to my none divine eye this place looks like boney piles. If I were God, I would plant something on them. Once again, be glad that I am not God.

Eeerrrr...

Y-oming? Y-not?

I am packing for a long weekend in Wyoming. It is rectangular state somewhere between here and the West coast. In my head I get it mixed up with Arizona. In the same way I mix up zebras and giraffes. And orange and green. I think it has something to do with the way I learned these things. Like they are stored too close together in my brain.
I will make an effort not to say I am glad to be in Arizona. I think it would be like someone mixing up Pennsylvania and Kentucky. Duh. Unless you are from Wyoming and you know that they are both oddly shaped states between the Mississippi River and the East coast. I have been wearing Abi's-er-my jean jacket to get in the mood.
Mostly I will be myself. They already know I can't play the piano and I don't cook. Most everything else about me is good stuff, so I am not worried. Pray for me anyway...