I have been swimming for the past few months.  My instructor is so much fun that most of the time I forget how miserable I am exercising.  I detest exercising.  But I know that it is good for me.  This was the last day before I move.  I hope I find a teacher who is as good as Kim.  And as fun.

Ken always said, "If you are going to enroll in a class at college, take the teacher.  The teacher will be the reason whether you enjoy it or not."  I think that is true in everything.  People make the difference in our lives.

Proverbs 17: 22 "A merry heart does us good like a medicine: but a broken spirit dries the bones."

How true.  Merry people actually do make us feel better.

And I have always loved this Scripture:  Proverbs 27:17 "Iron sharpens iron; so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend."

I hate leaving all my friends.  They had a luncheon for me yesterday, and we spent a couple of hours remembering all the years and experiences we had shared.  They helped me raise my children.  I helped them raise theirs.  There were wonderful memories.

It's not the end of the world.  I will make new friends.  But they won't be the same.  I've lived here since I was four years old--except for the Marine Corps years.  I know everything about them.  They know everything about me.  And love me anyway.

Proverbs 17:17 "A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity."

Proverbs 18:24 "A person that has friends must show himself friendly; and there is a friend that sticks closer than a brother."  And I can take that friend with me wherever I go.

One move that we made--from Beaufort, S.C. back to Pryor (Ken was on his way to Viet Nam)--all five of us had to go to the changing of command ceremony and were dressed to the nines.  Ken in his dress blues, me in a new dress and all three of the children clean and acceptable for five or ten minutes and hopefully for the entire hour.

I had stayed at the house until the last minute, and told the movers not to touch anything in the dining room.  Those were the suitcases we were taking in the car--all our clothes, shaving gear, makeup, shoes, children's books and toys, etc. that would get us through the next week--until the moving van arrived in Oklahoma.  "You understand," I told the guy in charge.  Don't pack any of the things in the dining room."

"Gottcha," he said.

When we returned--Ken was surrendering command of a squadron that he had been the C.O. of for the past year--the bags were gone.  The movers were gone.  The house was empty.  Totally vacant.

We traveled to Oklahoma in our Sunday clothes.  Every time we stopped for gas, Ken was the object of interest as he pumped gas in his red, white and blue uniform.  If we had had any money, we would have stopped for some clothes.  But outfitting five people from shoes to top hat is expensive, and we were broke anyway.  Military people are always broke.  (One move is like a good fire...and we were always having to replace things to survive.)  Wouldn't trade it for anything.  Wouldn't go back and do it again.

Matthew 6:27-28 "And which of you by being anxious can add a single cubit to his life's span.  And why are you anxious about clothing?  Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, yet..Solomon in all his glory did not clothe himself like one of these."

Jon came through surgery ok.  Will know more in a week when the biopsies are back.  Thank you for your prayers.

Ken has always been there when we moved.  He didn't box anything up, but he carried things and moved things for me as we got ready.  This is the first move I have made by myself.  I have missed him being here to help.

And--I have been anxious about it all.  Probably because of the nineteen moves I have made in the past.  I always wonder what the movers will smash.  I know they will, it's just a matter of what.

One move we made, the movers packed the van, locked the doors and were getting in the cab.  I wasn't there at the time, but our next door neighbor asked them if they had forgotten to pack our two metal trash cans.

The mover looked at her, picked up a sledge hammer, smashed both cans flat, strapped them on the back of the truck and said:  "Have her take that out of the insurance.

The Marine Corps wives had a certain "Line" they liked to tell you.  "Three moves is like one good fire."  I agree with that.  If you got caught up in what would go wrong, you would go crazy.

I have a zillion moving stories.  So I am admitting that I am a little anxious.  But whatever they break, I know it is just stuff.  I am putting everything that I really care about in the car with me. And that's not much.  It's amazing how little counts when you are my age.

In Matthew 8:20, Jesus said, "...the foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head."  I have a wonderful home to move into.  I don't have to wonder where I am going to sleep--where I am going to lay my head.  I am blessed.  God is good.

When I was a young girl, nine or ten, my Sunday School room had a picture on the wall of Jesus standing in front of a door--knocking.  At the bottom of the print was this Bible verse:  Revelation 3:20 "Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him, and will dine with him, and he with Me."

It was a perfect picture of salvation.  Jesus knocks.  You have felt it.  You have heard that still small voice from somewhere inside you.  It demands a response.

The door where He was knocking had no door-knob.  It was a plain flat empty surface, because it could only be opened from the inside.  He will not force himself on you.  You have to choose.  You have to open the door.  You have to invite him into your heart and life.

I remember the first time I felt that tug on my heart.  Thank God I responded.  If you don't respond, it gets easier and easier to refuse His request to be a part of your life.  And there will come a day when He will quit knocking.

Psalms 103: 8-9a " The Lord is compassionate and gracious, Slow to anger and abounding in loving kindness.  He will not always strive with us..."  He will quit knocking.

Responsiveness to God is sometimes referred to as a "Tender Heart."  Because He forgives us, it is easier for us to forgive others.  The Lord's prayer says: "...forgive us our trespasses as (in the same way as) we forgive those who trespass against us."

My son Jon is having a critical surgery in the morning.  I am praying.  I would appreciate your prayers as well.

One of our church members is a missionary to Nepal.  He returned there last year after a year long sabbatical in Pryor.    Because he served as our associate pastor and because we love him and his parents, our church was vitally interested in what was happening in Nepal and especially to him, his wife and children.  Their little boy had to have some stitches, but none of them were seriously harmed.  Thank God.  Thousands lost their lives.

They reported an interesting event that could only have been orchestrated by God himself.  There is an organization called the Baptist Global Alliance that goes everywhere in the world when there is a disaster.  They are funded by our tithes and offerings.  Their mission is to do what the Red Cross is doing--in the name of Christ.  It is hard to believe in the coincidence, but they were training in Nepal when the quake hit.   They were on the spot as a relief team immediately.  They had been preparing to leave, but instead, they went to work.
 
The Baptist Convention has put together relief teams in each of the states in America.  They are manned by volunteers (anyone) who will train and perform to do disaster relief.  A few years ago, the Oklahoma team came to Pryor when we were devastated by an ice storm.  Trees and limbs were blocking roads.  Trees had fallen on houses and lawns.  It was a mess, and we had to have help.

Men came from all over the state with chain saws, pickups and went from house to house clearing rubble.  No charge.  Not even for the gasoline to get here. They do the same thing when we have tornados.  They were present in New Orleans for Katrina.  They stay very busy.  If you are wondering what one person can do to help, volunteer!!  There are all sorts of organizations that do good work.

One person can only say, "What can I do to help?"  A team can actually accomplish something.  Our good works around the world identify us as the people of God.  And those who have been helped will never forget that the people who love Christ came--when they were needed--and donated food, water, shelter, blankets, and helping hands in the name of Jesus.  No charge.  Free.  Just like salvation.  Check with your church, maybe they have some similar relief organizations.

You have had some time to think about where Jesus went for the three days after he died.

1.  He told the thief on the cross that they were going to go to Paradise.

2.  He came back in three days and told Mary that he hadn't yet ascended to the Father.  Which means that during those three days, he hadn't yet gone to heaven.  He had been in Paradise.

3.  In Matthew 27:50-53 "Jesus...cried with a  loud voice and yielded up the ghost.  And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake...and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose and came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city and appeared to many."

4.  Since they were saints, it means that their souls had been "held" ( I think in Paradise) until the ransom was paid by the Messiah who hadn't yet come--back when they had died.  Once Jesus paid the penalty for their sins, they were free to enter heaven.

The thing I wonder about is if they appeared when Jesus died, where was Jesus while these saints were walking about Jerusalem?  The more I read God's word, the more questions I have.

We do know for a fact that he conquered death.  Wherever he was, whatever he did, how much he suffered, he did it for us.  He paid the price for sin.

It doesn't do any good to speculate about what God doesn't tell us.  If he had wanted us to know, he would have said so.  However, as a student of the Bible you need to be aware when you encounter a gap in a story.  That way, at least you know what you don't know.

I am moving in two weeks.  It is bearing down on me.  Everybody asks if I am going to have a garage sale and the answer is "No."  I am so confused at this point I can't decide what to keep and what to give away, throw out, or sell.  I gave away everything that they took out of my new house to the workers that were laying tile and painting.  It got all of that stuff out of the garage.

But here, I look at something, wonder if I will ever use it, wonder if I need it, then can't decide--and throw it in the box with the rest of the stuff.  Since I don't know what to keep, my plan is to open boxes when I get there, take out what I want,  then leave the rest of it in the box and put the boxes in the garage.  I can narrow it down better that way than figuring it out here.

Then Becky can come over and have a garage sale.  Her neighborhood doesn't allow garage sales.  She will use the proceeds to buy a ticket overseas and use the frequent-flyer miles to get a ticket for her niece or sister or me to go overseas with her.  She has to take three trips a year to stay at the top of the frequent flyer list so that she gets triple miles.  It's a science at this point.  She flies a lot.  Four overseas trips a year.

It is a five hour round trip drive to Edmond and I have been making it every week for the past few months.  I get very weary.  I'm not the gal I used to be.  Last week I took  most of my winter clothes and hung them in the master closet.  That felt good.  

People say that God helps those who help themselves.  He has been helping me.  I haven't had any health problems since December.  Not even a runny nose.  I am so thankful.  And my strength is holding out.  I have lifted a hundred boxes full of stuff.  Every day I pack three or four more.

God is good.