Liquid Gold

What a joy to awaken yesterday to rain. It has not rained here in months. Our grass is like straw. What a blessing, the rain has been coming down at just the right rate. Slow and consistent. Not enough to cause any flooding and the ground is soaking it all up. It is suppose to rain today and tomorrow also. Then the holiday weekend is suppose to be beautiful.

I am sure it is too late for the farmer's crops, but the grass and wells around here sure do need the rain. Normally I do not look forward to the gray, dreary days. But with the lack of water we have been having I rejoice in this weather. I pray that the Gulf does not suffer from all the effects of the hurricanes, and hope that everyone will keep them in their prays also.

Remember to do random acts of kindness and make our world a better place for others. You will find it not only a blessing for the one you do it for but a blessing for yourself.

Love and hugs!

Witnessing a Wonderful New Beginning

Yesterday we were blessed to witness a wonderful new beginning! Ross & Jungmeen became husband and wife. The wedding was a sweet, elegant and touching service. There is no doubt that these two are meant to spend the rest of their lives together and the Lord himself has had His hand in their finding each other!

It truly was a blessing to have witnessed this marriage, from the Pastor of Jungmeen's church in Rochester, NY telling about Jungmeen and himself praying for a Christian man to come into her life, to the pastor of the church in Christiansburg telling of his witnessing the meeting of Ross and Jungmeen and the development of their relationship & the role of their Lord in that relationship. What a true blessing!

After that beautiful service, everyone went to the Inn at Virginia Tech for a wonderful reception. Everything was lovely. The highlight personally to me was when Lee and Tara and many of the young people were up on the dance floor doing the Electric slide. All of a sudden I realized there were Ross and Lee side by side with big smiles on their faces. I have to admit tears started to fall. It was like years melted away and there they were once again performing on stage. No, not clogging but there they were having the fun they did as middle school children side by side performing, dancing for the enjoyment of others, competing in their dance group. It was priceless. I only wish I had gotten a photo. That would have been a treasure to me. I am tearing up as I am typing this. Dancing was such a big part of their lives back then. What a friendship theirs was. Even though years have gone by the smiles on their faces brought such joy to this mothers heart. They will never know how much it meant. Not only did their dancing bring joy to their mothers but also, they brought the two families together in a friendship that will forever be a bond and blessing! Thank you for this blessing!

My heart is so full for this young couple that now starts their life together. I pray God's blessings on them both. God is so good! Today they leave for their honeymoon to Vienna. I pray for travel mercies and a wonderful trip for both of them. God bless them in their wonderful new life together.

Late nights, busy days!

With the Summer Olympics in full swing and the history making Michael Phelps how can one go to bed early? During the day Sue's computer at work is being equiped to have DSL and she has not had access to internet all week or for that matter, she has not had her desk all week. It has been a very frustrating week for her. She is grateful for all the efforts being put into getting the computer set up, but it is difficult to get anything done also. She is hoping that the phones will be functioning and the computer will get finished soon so she can get back to normal. Part of the problem is that she has downloaded things that virus protection did not detect had viruses so they are having to find programs to get them off. They are going to lock down the computer so downloading will not be possible. So, if Sue doesn't read your emails with attachments you will have to forgive her!

Roger is working on finishing his installation of the new furnace he purchased in early spring. He is slowly finishing up. Hopefully he will have time to get it done before we need heat. Just joking.

School starts next week around here. We both are amazed how children these days seem to have such a short summer. We can remember not so long ago that children didn't go back to school until after Labor Day. What a shame that the summer is shortened for our grandchildren. I guess this is considered "progress". Well we hope all of you are enjoying your summer. We still have had no rain and we have brown "crunchy" grass! We are praying for some relief here and hope you are all getting some raindrops in your area. God bless. Love & hugs to all!

IN MEMORY OF MATTHEW

Matthew Ergenbright-33 years old, husband and father of 2 went home to the Lord today at 3:40AM after a courageous battle with cancer. In his honor I would like to post an portion of one his journal entries please consider his request. Thank you Matthew for your example and your faith, you will be missed. Praise the Lord for your healing. "Well done good and faithful servant."


Posted on Friday, July 11, 2008 Matthew wrote:
In this group that has formed, through this Caringbridge site of supporters for me, many have asked "What can we do?". In honor of me if everyone could pick one thing that they could do for someone else, be it small or large, do that random act of kindness. Because of the number of visits that I see on this website each day, I know that there are a lot of people out there that may feel like they don't have the time or just don't think about it. Write it on your calender or "pencil it in" to perform a random act of grace and you will be more rewarded more than you can ever imagine. It might not be immediately, or an hour away, but you will notice it when you look back through the calendar and something stops you on that page and you wonder why you had "penciled in" random act of kindness. You will remember that act when you see that reminder. That is what will help bring our communities back together and full of kindness and strength.

Good Timber

Good Timber - author unknown

The tree that never had to fight

For sun and sky and air and light

But stood out in the open plain

And always got its share of rain

Never became a forest king

But lived and died a scrubby thing,

The man who never had to toil

To gain and farm his patch of soil

Who never had to win his share,

Of sun and sky and light and air,

Never became a manly man

But lived and died as he began.

Good timber does not grow with ease

The strong wind, the stronger trees.

The further sky, the greater length

The more the storm, the more the strength

By sun and cold, by rain and snow,

In trees and men good timber grow.

Where thickest lies the forest growth

We find the patriarch of both.

And they hold counsel with the stars

Whose broken branches show the scars

Of many winds and much of strife.

This is the common law of life.

July 27, 1970 - 38 years later

You guessed it, 38 years ago we eloped. We both agree we would never relive that day again. Don't get us wrong we would remarry in a heart beat, just not that way! If you don't know the story, it is really way to long to put in a post. Here is a much shorter version

After leaving at 2AM we drove from Ohio to Indiana and were told that we could get married there but we would have a 3 day waiting period. Since Roger didn't have 3 days off from work that wouldn't do. So Roger knew of another place so in the car we got and drove all the way to Clintwood, VA. A long, long, long, hot ride! It was somewhere around 100 degrees out. We arrived there around 4 PM. & after having blood tests & going to the court house. There were two churches in town. We first went to the Baptist Church and it had closed! Then to the Methodist Church parsonage and the pastor's wife said, "I am sorry but the pastor isn't here." At this point Sue had tears running down her cheek. She immediately said, "but he will be back shortly if you would like to wait."

We sat in the parsonage just a little while and the pastor came. We went over to the church and were married. Sue was so embarrassed that when he said,"you may kiss your bride," Sue pushed Roger away.

After we were married, Roger told Sue not to let him stop the car when they stopped to get a cold drink because we had been driving so long he was sure the car would not restart. Well we pulled into this place and sure enough he stopped the car. He was right, it wouldn't restart. It was a standard shift car and not even a year old. We tried to "kick start" it and it went over this bank. Then we had to have it towed out. Finally we were on our way home. We got back into Kentucky and next thing we knew we were pulled over by the police. Supposedly for speeding. Now we swear to this day we were not speeding! To make a long story short we were not given a ticket but were told never to come through there again speeding. right

We got back to Roger's family home about 11PM, talk about exhausted. His mother greeted with tears of happiness (they knew we were getting married). Then she said, "Roger you go in and sleep with your brother and Sue you go in and climb in with Cheryl." If you could have seen Roger's face. He said, "If you think I just went through all I just did to do that you must be crazy!" So we spent our wedding night out in "the building". By the building we mean the building next to the outhouse. Yes Roger's family live way out in the country. It was a building where they stored things and sometimes even cats gave birth there. It wasn't an elegant place to spend a wedding night, but it sure was better than "bunking" with your sister in law!

Now maybe you know why we both say, "we would never go through that again!"

38 years later we are happier than ever! We wish everyone the happiness we have found together. God has really blessed us both and we are so thankful to have found each other.

A Bright and Cool Day!

Today we have some much needed relief in the weather. We finally had a bit of rain the other evening. Unfortunately along with the rain came some wind. As a result we lost the canopy over the patio along with some necessary of the reinforcements that hold up the framing. So I guess that is the end to the canopy for this year. We have talked about building a permanent structure so hopefully next spring we can. Roger needs the shade as fair skinned as he is.

This weekend Roger has been planning to go to Kristy's to replace the a/c unit under her house. He ordered the unit and seems there was some sort of mix up where it was ordered. We are hoping after 3 trips to Harrisonburg, that it arrives today. If not we were assured it will arrive next Wednesday. He will however still go to Locust Grove and pull out the old unit and prepare the area for installation of the new one anyway, measure for new copper line (as measurements couldn't be obtained due to the tight area the unit is in under the house). Sue is going to the Roanoke area to the shower of Ross and Jungmeen on Saturday so she will not be able to accompany Roger. Ross is the son of dear friends of Roger and Sue's and Ross and Lee grew up together. The shower is a couple's shower and even though Roger is invited he needs to get this a/c unit in for Kristy and family as they have been waiting a loooooooong time for it! He will go to the wedding so that is the most important thing to attend anyway!

Last evening, Roger & Sue worked on the Montero. At long last the check engine is out! After ordering a part from California that took almost 2 weeks to come in, and in the mean time having to replace the battery, they managed to find out which o2 sensor of the 4 was bad and figured out how to wire up the new one (which had different color wires) from the old one. (Sue figured that out! LOL) Roger crimped them together and made the remark, "gosh I don't even have any extra wires left." Sue laughed. He installed it and to our amazement the check engine went out without having to go have it reset. We were delighted. The light had been on for we can't tell you how long!

Roger then got the "little red truck" and pulled it around to the side driveway as Lee said the last time he drove it, it was making a funny noise around the wheel in the front driver's side. Off came the wheel. Roger inspected it and heard a rub. Nope, the brake pads looked good. Hum he check other things out, but the wheel on. Then said that he didn't hear the rub. Wierd. Took it for a drive and said well he still hear a bit of a noise. He made a remark, maybe I will drive it til something happens. Later he made another remark, I think tomorrow I will take off the other tire and check it out. So I guess tonite while Sue goes to Waynesboro and runs off our church bulletins for Sunday and gets the oil changed in the Montero, he will check out the other front wheel of the "little red truck."

I think getting that check engine light out has sparked some real "let's get these little problems fixed" energy going in us! Hope so, as it would be nice to have these vehicles running and not worried about something happening on the road. Well I guess I have rambled enough for today.

Remember to hug the ones you love! Keep honoring the Lord and doing for others!