​When disasters come, how do people get through them and still find joy?  

I was thinking about that today as we packed up the truck to head to yet another of our retreats. We started having retreats in 2012. We are having number thirty-five this weekend.

Our reasoning for having a retreat was so that all the wonderful people we meet all over the country could get to know each other. We had one that first year, and everyone said, "Let's have another!" Then the people who came to those two said, "Let's have another!" Now we have three a year. One in the fall, one in the spring, and one in the winter.

During these last years we have had some wonderful experiences, but when I look back, the "disaster" retreats were the best. Let me explain.  

During the government shutdowns of 2020, the hotel canceled. Our phone started ringing. "Can we just come to your house?" We were living in a church parsonage at the time, and the church campus had a gym. Some people slept in the gym. Some brought tents and campers and set them up in the yard. Audrey slept in the laundry room and called it her studio apartment! Somehow we managed to feed, sleep and shower, around forty people. Each night we sat outside around a campfire. What memories!

Since everything was still shut down when the next retreat came around, they asked again, "How about your house?!" So, once again, here came the tents, the campers, the cots and the air mattresses.  

A couple of years ago, a hurricane swept through our area. I don't think I have ever been in a hurricane before. This retreat was in West Virginia at the camp where the Harveys lived and worked. On the way up, I thought our car was going to be blown off the road a few times. Again, about forty people made it. After getting everything set up, the electricity went off. Not to worry. We had Robert and Ethan. After getting the generators going, we spent the whole weekend figuring out how to cook and shower and get back and forth to our dark cabins without being blown off the mountain.

Once again, a retreat to remember. When faced with a "disaster," what is our response? The lessons God teaches in the hard times, are sometimes the best lessons. I, for one, do not want to miss out on one of His lessons.

Tomorrow, we are supposed to get a snow storm. Our retreat is in Gatlinburg. We are going in spite of what the weatherman is saying. I am not saying be foolish, but last week we were supposed to get ten inches!  We didn't even get an inch. God is the weatherman. 

For thirty-five years we did a week of senior high church camp. One year a tornado swept through the day before our week started. The camp manager called and wanted to cancel our week. We said, "Absolutely not. We're coming!" We showed up with chain saws, axes and generators. Our senior high kids (about 125) were troopers. Everyone, and I do mean everyone, jumped in to help. We had no electricity, so cold showers all week, vespers by lamp light and singing a cappella. What a week. In all those thirty-five years of doing church camp, that week is by far my favorite. Not one time did I hear a complaint or a whine from anyone!

I can hear someone say, "Well, you sure are stupid." Maybe so. I'll be the first to admit it. But I have a story. It's a God story. It's how God blesses even in the middle of a disaster.

​What's your story? 

I was talking to Tommy this morning...ranting is more like it...about how every time I start feeling sorry for myself, or think I have it rough, I need to just step outside and look "two doors down," or one door down, or one street over, or at the person next to me on the bus or train.

I wonder why I spend so much time whining when I need to be rejoicing and thanking God for all He does for me...and most of the time, without me even asking. When I get to the end of the day, I look back and see His hand in so many things I wasn't even aware of at the time. 

Go to the library and get some books by people who truly have suffered untold hardship. Watch some movies about people who have overcome unbelievable abuse and torture. Listen to podcasts of people who have endured and even rejoiced in how the Lord has seen them through those deep waters they have had to cross, and high mountains they have had to climb.

Then walk outside, look up and down the street, and pray for the person two doors down. Also ask the Lord to show you how to help others overcome their hardships. Maybe it will make what you are going through a little easier to bear.

​It was the perfect day...

a blessed day...

an anointed day...

from the drive to church in the snow to the baptism in the river!

We had been asked to fill in at church in Foscoe, NC until the new preacher came. The snow wasn't bad on the way up, but a lot of times the snow doesn't start until we hit the state line between Tennessee and North Carolina, about thirty minutes from our house. Sunday was no exception. Almost from the time we hit the state line, it started snowing.

When we got to church, they had called off Sunday School, but because there were several people already there, we went ahead and had it. So glad we did! Excellent lesson, wonderful fellowship. Anointed.

When we got upstairs for church, it was already pretty full. Tommy and John boy led the service. Again, anointed.

The teenage boys who were to be baptized came up and told the congregation that they wanted to follow Jesus the rest of their lives, and they wanted Him to be their Lord. Anointed.

A woman who has been suffering with pain for years asked for the elders to anoint her with oil and pray for healing. Anointed.

We ate sandwiches together (furnished by the parents of the boys who were to be baptized) and talked about the sermon the week before. Anointed.

THEN we went to the river. Someone had brought waders for Tommy, so he put them on. We walked through the snow to reach the river, and Tommy waded in. The two boys followed. The boys could hardly stop shaking from the cold. Tommy seemed to be in better control...

until...

he fell into the river as he brought the boys up from the baptism. He fell not once, but twice! So much for waders! Still...anointed.

Many of us make big plans at the first of the year. Most of us have probably been asked, "Have you made any New Year's resolutions?” 

The resolutions that I hear the most are:

I want to lose weight.

I want to read the Bible more.

I want to pray more.

I want to travel more. 

Of course the list goes on, but how many of us consult the Lord with our plans?

Isaiah 30:1 in the New Living Bible, says, "You make plans that are contrary to my will. You weave a web of plans that are not from my Spirit, thus piling up your sins. v. 2  For without consulting me you have gone down to Egypt to find help."

Oh wow! How many times have I "gone down to Egypt to find help?" I didn't even have to leave my house to find help, but I went down to Egypt.

I am not saying that God does not want you to lose weight, or pray more, or read your Bible more, or even travel more. It just seems to me that I am constantly making plans without consulting Him. Maybe that is why I sometimes find myself not at peace...or anxious...or fretful. Maybe if I quit trying to figure it out by myself, or quit going down to Egypt to find help, I would find the "peace that passes all understanding."  Philippians 4:7

At the beginning of this new year, I pray that you will make lots of resolutions. I also pray that you would consult the One and the only One who will show you the right path. And please, don't "go down to Egypt.” The answers are right inside you all the time. All you have to do is ask. Then listen. 

So make your plans…

but also consult your Father.

I like to read from different translations of the Bible. I keep the Message Bible, a beautiful new Bible that John boy gave me, and a Bible of my grandson's that we gave him when he was baptized, all together in one spot. I read Cal's Bible most of the time because it makes me feel closer to him. He is in California now, and sadly, I found this Bible among the things he left behind.

This morning I read something that I immediately thought could be the basis for a sermon to people who are going into the ministry. Sadly, again, our Bible colleges aren't turning out many ministers today,

I LOVE this scripture though, and like all scripture, it can apply to anyone who has ears to hear!

Isaiah 21:6 Meanwhile, the Lord said to me, "Put a watchman on the city wall to shout out what he sees, Tell him to sound the alert when he sees chariots drawn by horses and warriors mounted on donkeys and camels." Then the watchman called out, "Day after day I have stood on the watchtower, my Lord. Night after night I have remained at my post."

I LOVE that! I believe that God has called all of us to be "watchmen on the city wall." Would that we remain faithful to our post!

A little p.s. to this blog, that is rather funny. In verse 12 of the same chapter it says The Watchman replies, "Morning is coming, but night will soon follow.  If you wish to ask again, then come back and ask." John boy added, "...and may the force be with you!" 

​HA!

The first time we moved to New York City, we subleased an apartment from a girl named Lenora. Once, when the guys were gone for about four days, I fixed a big bowl of pasta and ate it the whole time the guys were gone.  Lenora had a package of pine nuts in her cabinet, so I decided to try them with my pasta. They were SO good, I ate the whole package that week. I had never heard of pine nuts before!

I was so enamored with those pine nuts that I went to the store to get some more. After all, they were Lenora's and I needed to replace them. I was so shocked at how much they cost, but I bought a replacement package for her anyway.

I have never bought pine nuts since.

Most of the time I go blissfully on my way, accepting all the gifts that come to me, and never really stop to consider that someone had to pay for all those gifts,

Lord, make me more grateful.

Many years ago, I worked on playgrounds in the summer.  A couple of times in Knoxville and a couple in Johnson City.  I made the big bucks!  $25 a week in Knoxville and $30 a week in J.C,

The playground I was assigned to in J.C. was across from the old cola plant.  It was a huge area and I was in charge of it.  It was at least 3 city blocks long.  We couldn't wear shorts in those days..only a skirt and a sleeveless blouse.  (Glad it was sleeveless!)

I worked from 8 until 4 and there was very little shade on the playground.  

The Veteran's Hospital was just over the hill,  and often the veterans would come down and sit on the bleachers which were on the end closest to the VA.  Many times they fell asleep!

The bleachers were next to a fence.  It was a chain link fence, just there to catch the balls, since that was also the end where the kids played softball.  The top of the fence had those jagged ends shaped like an X.  Very sharp and very dangerous.

One day a little boy decided to climb the fence.  When he got to the top he got his arm hung on one of those jagged ends and it ripped a huge chunk out of it.  In fact, I had to lift him up in order to get his arm off without ripping it anymore.  

Of course he started screaming his head off and I put him in my car and took him to the hospital.  He never stopped screaming and I couldn't leave him, so went in with him for them to sew it up.  (Where I immediately started to pass out!  The Dr. happened to see me and told me to put my head between my legs!)

I had called his Mother to come to the hospital, but before she got there he just kept screaming.."don't cut my arm off", over and over again!  I tried to reassure him, to no avail.  

Finally his Mother arrived.  She only had one arm.

​Tommy and I got married after I had been teaching for 6 years.  That Christmas (we were married December 22) I worked as usual.  And, as usual, I got sick from the door being open and closed all day.  

After our wedding, we drove away and headed for our new home.  On the way I told Tommy to stop and get me an alka seltzer because I wasn't feeling too well.  We stopped at a convenience market and he went in to get the medicine.  I noticed as he was paying that all the clerks in the store were bent over laughing.  When he came out, I asked him what they were all laughing about.

He said that he told them his wife was sick and he needed some alka seltzer.  They asked him why he was all dressed up.  He said "I just got married."

Need I say more?

After high school I had a tradition of lining up my Christmas job (and my summer job) a year before. The manager at Knox Department Store was a boy (Joe) with whom I was in school all through grade school and high school.  He assured me of a job at Christmas every year.  

I usually worked in the men's department because they liked the way I kept the pant shelves neat.  The only problem with that was, that it was at the back of the store where people came and went through the back door all day.  Almost every year I got sick working at Knox!  I would get warm, then someone would open the door and the cold air would rush in.

After college, I started teaching but also kept my Christmas job.  Joe would let me come to work after I got off school at 3 and I worked until 9 when the store closed.  (stay tuned for part 2 of this story.)