A BIT OF SUMMER AND THOUGHTS ON ANCESTORS

Do you like the picture of the roses? I may have posted this before, but I thought that those who follow my posts would appreciate a bit of summer right here in the middle of January--especially if you're living in a climate like I do. Today it is quite cold, windy, and snowy outside. We got a good bit of snow last night and today it's blowing around. The sun is shining here and there this afternoon, so that helps, but I thought this picture might bring a bit of sunshine in your day as well! It's a little hope that summer will eventually come!

I know that I told you that we've been searching family history. My daughter is getting really good at learning how to find information that we're interested in. As I was doing my daily Bible reading this morning, a new appreciation for family history was impressed upon me.

If we would be honest, we would all admit to the temptation to skip the long lists of "begats" that we occasionally find in scripture. I ran onto one this morning in the third chapter of Luke. My first thought was that I had read this many times before and I could just skip to the next chapter. Then I suddenly realized how we've been searching so diligently for our ancestor's names and this list of names was a very unique list that I needed to spend time reading. Each of the people listed were a link to someone else in Jesus' family. Each name that my daughter and I find puts another piece in the puzzle of family history and is precious to us. After all, though they might be someone we never knew, they were real people, loved by God. People who had hopes, dreams, legacies, and eternal destinies. In fact, we're beginning to learn that every name, even if we thought it might not be a direct link in our family line, is important. A couple of times we've found our most important information by investigating the records of names we thought were unimportant to our search!

This reminds me of how each person is precious to God. As people, we may overlook others and have a tendency to dismiss some acquaintances as unimportant, but God looks at each of us as His special creation, a person with a soul, an individual that He desires to know Him and spend eternity with Him. I guess looking at these family histories has caused me to ponder those things and wonder what others were like who preceded us. It reminds me that you are quickly forgotten after just a few short years unless someone is diligent to remember you or you happened to be famous for something. It's a sobering thought that should remind us of our own frailty and the fact that we will face our Creator in a relatively short amount of time--most lives are 70-80 years or so.

So today when I ran onto that Bible list, I read it with new respect. Each name is important, even if I didn't know them personally. Those lists are there for a reason, as is all of scripture. Searching family history made me realize that today! Blessings, LORI

THE MYSTERIOUS MISSING PICTURE!

Now that I already revealed the secret of the "knitted project" featured a few posts ago, here's the accidentally deleted picture! Sorry, I hope you like these unusual knitted fingerless gloves! They remind me of something from another era--like you'd see in medieval times or something. I really am enjoying them and know I will want to make more. They are handy because your fingers are free unlike traditional gloves, yet your hands stay warm.

MORE ON NOBILITY

As I wrote on the last few posts, I have really been pondering "nobility" for a number of reasons. With all the family history searching that's been going on, the thoughts about nobility increased. When Rhiannon began making connections clear back to 1221 (assuming the research is correct) we began to learn of legends surrounding some ancient members of the family. These stories involved famous battles, kings, and crusades! While no one can positively confirm these things, they made for alot of interesting study. While it appears that none of the family we have yet traced was actual royalty, it is quite possible that some of them received their lands and occupations from grants given in return for favors to kings. I did some studying this week and learned so much about the old systems of feudalism in England and Europe. It appears that this is very accurate about the way you received land and appointments.

In my studies I read alot about the Crusades and the rise of "knights" and chivalry. It was very interesting, but one of the most interesting things to me was the fact that young boys who might become knights were first expected to serve. One book indicated that they were expected to serve in all manner of ways to learn many skills and "earn" the knowledge and right to rise to another level of greater service and rank. With more rank came more honor. It reminded me of Jesus words that he who would be great must first be a servant. (Matthew 20:26)

So, I think another quality of "nobility" is servanthood. You rise to ranks of honor and privilege by first serving. You do not expect things to be handed to you on a silver platter. Isn't that a bit of what was being lived out in the Bereans of Acts? Instead of just taking the words given to them, they studied to be sure they contained truth. Paul was not the least bit offended by them taking the time to check his message. Apparently even in their diligence, they had a willing and open mind that longed to receive the gospel. Being teachable is a wonderful quality to adopt. As a teacher (I have taught in Sunday school in many capacities) it is always nice to deal with teachable people. Maybe "nobility" is connected to servanthood, teachability, and diligence as in the Berean's search of scripture). Just some thoughts. Blessings, LORI

PICTURE COMING SOON!

OOPS! Will correct that little mistake of the missing picture as soon as possible! Don't know what happened, but now the secret's out about the knitted item! I'm anxious to share the photo with you. Blessings, LORI

BAKING, KNITTED LACE GLOVES, AND MORE ON NOBILITY!

Just wanted to share a few pictures with you today before launching into another post on nobility! The first picture reveals the finished product of the picture I recently posted asking you to guess the knitted item! A pair of knitted lace fingerless gloves! I really like them. They keep your hands pretty warm. At first I couldn't understand why anyone would want to wear "fingerless" gloves, but many people do, I have learned, and they are quite comfortable! Do you like them? I surely enjoyed knitting them.

The next pictures are out of order, but they are as you can see, a pan of dinner rolls, the finished product of what I'm doing in the last few pictures. But, a bit of explanation--I had recently decided to try a recipe for bulk hot roll mix. I have an old cookbook of bulk recipes for master mixes. A hot roll mix is in there, so here I am mixing up the simple ingredients. The rolls, very tasty I might add, are the result of the recipe you see me making!

MORE THOUGHTS ON NOBILITY

Have you been pondering what it means to be noble? I think we use the term somewhat incorrectly nowadays in that we often think of royalty when we speak of nobility, as if someone can be of "noble birth," or born into a royal family. While that may be one shade of the meaning of nobility, I think there's more. It's a quality as well as a station. Therefore, you can aspire to nobility without being the child of someone who is heir to a throne! The Bible reference I cited in Acts certainly would support that. The group of people in the verse are called "noble." As I said, at first I was really confused about this and wondered about this quality. If you read the whole verse ( I was centering on the noble part and not considering the other part as much!) you see that nobility, at least in one sense, is a response to life's situations.

The verse in Acts speaks of the Bereans being more noble than those in Thessalonica in that they searched the scriptures daily to see if what Paul was teaching was true. Nobility was based on their response to information presented to them. Nobility was a behavior. More on the next post.......Blessings, LORI

CONSIDERING NOBILITY

Due to some of the events of the recent past, I want to post at least a two part series on my blog urging my readers to “consider nobility.”

Let me begin with a key verse that has been on my mind for many months. It is found in Acts chapter 17. Verse 11, speaking of the people Paul ministered to in Berea, states, “These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.”

This verse caused me to think a lot for months and months about whether some people are “more noble” than others. Not wanting to be the kind of person that prejudges people, this kind of made a conflict in my mind. Is there some quality that is inborn in certain people that is “more noble” than others just by virtue of something within them? That didn’t seem right since the whole counsel of scripture would seem to indicate that all of us are on a level playing field in God’s eyes. In fact, we are all born in sin since the fall and must be saved. So what does this verse really indicate? Since I was obviously missing something, that just goes to show that meditating on a passage of scripture, studying it and re-thinking it over time, is a good practice!

Over the months as I thought about this, I observed a lot about human nature. Isn’t it observable that some places seem to receive the teaching of the Gospel more readily than others? Aren’t some people just easier to get along with than others that you meet? Does this “noble” quality have something to do with that? I came to no real hard and fast conclusions—until this week.
My daughter, Rhiannon, just loves to study family history as I’ve mentioned before. Through the good records left by my grandma, (my father’s mother), we realized we could trace quite a long line of our family. They seemed to have been here “forever,” like the old joke, “they came over on the Mayflower.” Well, if they did, we can’t prove it, but the earliest record of our ancestral line shows the first one born in America in 1635, only 15 years after the landing of the Mayflower. That was kind of exciting. In studying further we could not trace this person any more. However, we did realize that the wife, one of our great, great, however many ‘greats’ grandmother’s line of people were easily traceable. Someone had already done the work and posted vast amounts of information on the internet about this family. More research done this week added a few more generations to our list. Since we last checked the reliable websites someone had posted more names and dates. We now have an unbroken list from my grandchildren back to the year 1221—24 generations! The amazing stories and history that go along with this made me think much more about this quality of “nobility.” I read and studied a lot this week in history books, on the internet, as well as meditating on this verse. I’ll share what I think I’ve discovered on the next post.Meanwhile, read that verse and think about it. See what the Lord speaks to you concerning "nobility." Blessings, LORI

MISCELLANEOUS FILIGREE!

I have a bunch of little newsy items to post about today. Here goes!

KNITTED FILIGREE!

First, this is one of my latest knitted projects. Can you guess what it is? I will give clues in the next few days and post pics of the finished product when done. I love the pattern but had to have the help of a friend to get going. I tore out the first few rows about 10 times til we together got it figured out! Make a guess as to what it will be!

A friend recently told me she'd like to see me post some recipes on my blog! I have certainly thought about that, but kind of disliking cooking like I do, I think that my really good recipes are few and far between; but let me tell you what I did today that I thought was ingenious. I had leftover beef roast and gravy, a couple spoonfuls of mashed potatoes, etc. from a big family dinner. I mixed up a crust out of baking mix (recently discovered I had too many opened boxes in my cupboard!). I cooked up leftover carrots and the above beef and veggie mix and made a pot pie. Covered it with the excess crust and froze it for later use. Let me share last week's quick meal. I took a very cheap can of potato soup and added half can of creamed corn and a few dollops of American process cheese, some milk, and heated it. The family RAVED about it. Try it--they'll think you slaved away on homemade soup and really it was very economical as well as done in 10 minutes! I am more of a "use it up" kind of cook than a recipe cook. This comes from years of homeschooling and scrimping while I was a stay-at-home mom. You had to get creative to make the budget stretch.

Yesterday I went shopping for fabric. It was really just a pleasure trip as I'm contemplating a couple of little granddaughter dresses for an upcoming baby/toddler dedication! As soon as Granny gets the word on when, she will start making an heirloom dedication gown for Sophia and a coordinating dress for Miss Emma Rose. My designer mind went wild today as I looked at fabric. There was lovely fabric and exquisite laces and notions. I saw a piece of lace that I instantly knew had to be used around the waistline of the dress I intend for Emma. It will change my original color scheme, but that's ok, since I found the exact fabric I wanted that coordinated with it beautifully. Can you build a whole 2-outfit scheme on one little piece of lace? ABSOLUTELY and I will! Also found fabric for Sophie's little gown. I have a few styles in mind and lo and behold they happen to coordinate in the most becoming way. Emma's will have a bolero jacket, the kind that are so popular right now and this little christening/dedication gown has an attacked jacket that trails down to the hemline of the dress. I CAN'T WAIT TO GET STARTED!

RUBY SLIPPER STORY--FINAL CHAPTER

After I opened the box that contained the "ruby slippers," I should have been relieved, comforted, and awed by God's amazing love to me. I already told you I didn't catch the real significance of that right away. I can't remember for sure, but I think it wasn't until we were on the way home that it really all sunk in.

The last three days of the African trip we went on safari. It was a kind of "vacation" for the weary workers before going back home. It was a chance to have a little fun, see the beauty of Africa, and unwind after the heavily scheduled week. We left the safari complex in the morning and drove on long bumpy dirt roads from the semi-arid safari location through some of the higher elevations and back to Nairobi. While in Nairobi, we shopped a bit as we waited to board our late evening flight. The next day we arrived back in Amsterdam. We only had about an hour layover this time and can you guess what most of the Americans did first thing? Yes, that's right--head straight to the nearest cheeseburgers and fries!

We boarded the plane and I can't remember what time it was. We were finally on the last leg of our journey and many of us didn't pack much at all in our carry-ons--after all, we were going home! Several of our party were ill by now. Some were later discovered to be suffering from e-coli infections. One person had been sick in Africa and was still rather weak, though a bit better. When we got over Greenland--I think about three hours into the flight, the pilot came on the intercom informing us we were going to have to turn around and go three hours back to land in London! You should have heard the groans and moaning of the entire plane. It seems there was a package found on the plane that was not associated with any passenger and that's a security issue. Talk about disappointed people! One soldier we met was going home from Iraq to attend his father's funeral and said now he would most likely miss it. I broke down and cried at his words, letting out all the built up emotion over returning home just flow out of me as I realized my own desire to return must be nothing compared to his.

So we began to make the flight back to London. I had a bit of a good feeling about that since I always wanted to go to England. I figured I'd at least get to see London. When we got close to London, they were unable to take us and we had to return to Amsterdam where the airline would put us all up in hotels for the night. We were given complimentary care packages with combs, a t-shirt, toothpaste, etc. Then we were given vouchers for food and lodging. Also free travel miles were given. It was actually kind of nice to sleep in a good hotel room and eat well before arriving home since we'd all been through the mill that day coming quite a ways across Kenya and then on a flight. We all were able to clean up and rest before boarding another plane in the morning.

I think it was while I sat in the plane, returning to Amsterdam that the realization hit me that God had reached into my situation and "promised" me with tangible evidence, however unique, that I would make it home! God is so creatively wonderful, isn't He? Most of us have Amsterdam sweatshirts or t-shirts now as a result the three visits to that city in a ten-day time span. Souvenirs of this most amazing trip!

INEXPENSIVE TABLE DECOR

Here are a few pictures of the decorations at the first annual (probably) NCCF Sportsmen's Banquet held on Tuesday evening. The food was wonderful and the program was great. Many compliments from the attendees were heard and their appreciation was evident as many hung around afterward to fellowship.

How do you like the creative use of antlers? I took foam blocks designed for dried floral arrangements and Clint secured the antlers on with rubber bands. Then I put evergreen branches, crabapple sprigs, twigs, and pinecones in to fill in the gaps. The other decorations were merely old blue canning jars filled with polished stones, twigs, and other dried materials. They were originally intended to go in the middle of the tables, but my husband thought it was going to be too hard to see each other across the table with tall grasses in the way. I ended up putting all the jars and "antler arrangements" on the book table, sign in table, etc. My mom took an old atlas and a dinner plate and cut "doilies" out of the maps. We placed these in the center of the tables with a sprig of arborvitae and a pinecone--a much shorter table arrangement! We have used the pages of old atlases many times for decor for church events with certain themes. They are a great way to recycle something that would otherwise be useless. It makes an attractive placement of the perfect size when the pages are left intact. We once used them that way for a senior citizen banquet and then played a game with the maps. So save your atlases! Hope you enjoy these ideas! Blessings, LORI

NEW BABY PICTURES AND MORE ABOUT THE RUBY SLIPPER INCIDENT!

Here are some of the newest pictures of our "little girls!"--grandgirls, that is! Emma Rose holds her new baby sister, Sophia Truth! I think Sophia looks just like my own daughter did. She shares Rhiannon's birthday too! That's probably just a proud granny's opinion, but it just seemed when we compared baby pictures that there was a huge similarity! Emma looked just like her daddy's baby pictures!I guess she is thought to look alot like Kori's baby pictures as well from what I hear! We are so blessed! Sophia was the first baby born in our county in 2010! That makes her the county's first baby of the decade! A nice lady from the local paper came to the hospital and interviewed Kori and JT. We hurried Emma over to get photographed in the picture for the paper. It appeared on the front page the next day with a nice article. They even mentioned that I had a New Year's baby, but that we didn't win the prizes since we were the second birth that year and not the first (1984). I also had a great nephew that was born on January 3rd and was the New Year's baby at the hospital in his town. The article mentioned that Sophia was carrying on a family tradition!

Life has been really busy around here lately. While Sophia was in the hospital we kept Emma at our house. I was reminded how a 2 year old can alter your activities! I think alot about being young again and had the opportunity to relive some of the activities of my youth (taking care of toddlers) once again last week! I admit, I don't know how I did it back then! I took care of two little ones and kept a decently clean house, washed with a wringer washer, used cloth diapers, baked alot and did most things the hard way. Now I found that it took me, Rhiannon, my mom, and Clint just to keep everything in order with a good set of new appliances and conveniences! Wow, how times change! Could it be I'm just out of practice! Hats off to the young moms among us! Your job is a big one!

Just a few little news updates since I haven't posted in a while. Tomorrow night we are hosting at our church a sportsman's banquet complete with a wonderful speaker and lots of really nice door prizes. My husband has been organizing this event for months and we are at an attendance of about 94 men as it now stands! Most are from other churches, but this will be a huge event for us. I will be decorating the tables tomorrow, hopefully before the caterer gets there to set up the food. Our son and some friends will be acting as the "all guy" worship team for the big event. I have some interesting ideas for table decor and if I can pull it off in style, I'll post pictures on the next blog!

I hope you noticed the new picture I posted on my profile. It was taken during our trip to Tennessee. I kind of liked it and thought it would be a nice little change.

CHAPTER 8--THE RUBY SLIPPER INCIDENT

Last time I wrote I told you about the brown paper package that was handed to me by a lady who was from the church where we were ministering. I was back in our tiny, triangle shaped room when I decided to open the box. I read the little letter attached. It indicated the names and ages of this lady's children and declared this gift to be a "seed" gift. For those who may not understand seed-giving, it is the practice of believing that your giving plants a seed that will grow, produce, and be harvested according to your own needs. This lady was believing in faith that by giving her best gift she would be investing in someone and her own needs would then be supplied. It touched my heart to realize her sacrifice.

Now, I'd like to tell you that when I opened the box I was really fully aware of the significance of the gift, but still being in the throes of extreme tiredness, homesickness, and culture shock, I didn't catch the Lord's obvious intervention when I reached in and pulled out a very bright red pair of used ladies' high heels!!!!!!! My first words to Clint were, "What will I do with a pair of red dress shoes?" DUH!!!! Being no Cinderella, my wide feet probably would never have fit these shoes, I was thinking. Why didn't I see the hand of God intervening to touch me with assurance of my own return home? I don't think I even remembered my remark about needing a pair of ruby slippers! Well, we don't always make the connections that ought to be obvious. It reminded me to be a little easier on those Biblical characters that always seemed to be missing the obvious! BUT...there's more to the story....Blessings, LORI

ANOTHER RUBY SLIPPER CHAPTER

Hi, everyone! By the way, I don't think I posted since our new granddaughter was named! Her name is Sophia Truth. Sophia means "wisdom," so she is wisdom and truth! We love the name and we love her! I hope to put more pictures on soon. She was the first baby born in the county this year! As well as the first baby of the year, she's the first baby of the decade! How cool! We praise God for her!

Chapter 7--THE RUBY SLIPPER INCIDENT

In the last posting on the Ruby Slipper Incident, I told you how I had begun to get really homesick while in Africa. I had even clicked my heels together in imitation of Dorothy on the Wizard of Oz and remarked that I wanted a "pair of those ruby slippers," to get me home!

Sometime during the week, we were at the church. I do not remember if it was a weekday or on a Sunday. I think it was a weekday. We were there more than once for various ministry activities.The church was in a large building in the center of the town where we stayed. They have since moved to the new location, but at that time that was our purpose for being there--helping them get started on the building at the new location. Anyway, when we walked out onto the street, several people were always around us. That is not unusual in a country with a very dense population. People are everywhwere--another factor that was something for this rural girl to get used to! The particular town we were in had a geographic area about the size of a small rural American town, the kind you can easily ride your bike across from end to end on a summer evening. But the population of the town was about 30,000 people compared to our American towns covering that same size ground having 1500 people living in them! So to feel crowded or surrounded by crowds is not all that unusual.

On that particular day, a lady came up to me as we stood outside the church and began talking to me. She presented me with a box wrapped in brown paper. It had a card on top and she told me she wanted to give it to me as a gift. I think I had met her before sometime during the week and had learned her name. She was very nice and trying to befriend me. I saw her a few times while we were there and she expressed an interest in learning to tat. That was one of the reasons I had gone along in the first place. I had intended to teach tatting to as many women as possible to give them a little source of income from the sale of needlework. I thanked her for the gift, though I didn't open it right there on the street.

Though I had taken tatting shuttles, thread, and patterns, I was disappointed to not get much time to work with the ladies on tatting. I did get a few hours one afternoon and one lady learned. I am still hoping she was able to teach others and the craft may have caught on since I never got a chance to personally work with the lady who gave me the gift. In fact, I never saw her again.

Clint and I went back to our hotel room and I sat the brown paper-wrapped box on the table. I began to open the card. It said something about this gift being her "best seed gift" for the needs of her family and home. Here I was longing for my home and family and someone gave me a gift as a seed for their own family and home needs! That alone was very interesting, indeed. But then, I opened the lid on the box......

More on that on the next post! Blessings, LORI

Some new baby pics!

KEEPING UP THE NEW YEAR'S TRADITION!

It looks like having a baby on the first day of the year is becoming a Zehr family tradition! Yes, that's right! JT and Kori's new baby girl was born last night at 2:10 approximately. She was the first New Year baby at the hospital. 26 years ago last night, Clint was with me in the delivery room at another hospital. At 6:52pm, New Year's evening, Rhiannon was born! So today she is a happy aunt, sharing her birthday with a new little girl! Happy Birthday, Rhiannon, and new baby!

JT and Kori have not yet named this little girl, but she is a cutie! We got to see her just now while she was wide awake. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw how very much she looks like her Aunt Rhiannon! What a neat event. Last night she was all bundled up and we got just a short time with her before leaving for home at 4:00am. Now I can really see how much she looks like her aunt!

More news on the next post. I hope you are having a Happy New Year anticipating the blessings of God. We have already experienced them--Praise His Name! Blessings, LORI