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Franklin VBS 2010 was a blast!!! The kids love worship time, krafts and most of all the FOOD!!! Kids and Adults learned together how God’s word can be comforting in the storms of life, but we have to have an open heart and listening ear to take advantage. Thank you God for all the blessings we experienced this year during VBS. Thank you also for all these wonderful children, they are your gift to the world. GOD IS GOOD!! Treasures in Heaven One of my favorite scriptures is Mathew 6: 19-21 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” My grandmother on my mother’s side was a wonderful Christian woman who struggled her whole life with one ailment after another. She had every surgery you could imagine, from heart by-pass, multiple knee surgeries and even brain surgery. She was in constant pain, but she loved to talk and have fellowship with anyone who would offer an ear. Her ailments didn’t slow her down one bit, until that fateful morning at the breakfast table where she had a stroke. Ma-maw struggled for several years with depression of not being able to talk or sing, and we struggled watching her. She could not share with us any more all the wonderful stories with her mouth, but she could still speak with her eyes. When anyone would come to see her, her eyes would light up and she wanted a hug. She loved people. It didn’t matter who you were, she just loved you because you were God’s child. I have very fond memories when I was younger about both Ma-Maw and Pa-Paw. They owned and ran a dairy farm called Catclaw Dairy. But at the time Ma-Maw had here stroke, they were retired from the dairy and were living a good life. We couldn’t understand why Ma-Maw had to suffer, why didn’t God just take her home? Once we received word that time was drawing near, my family drove all night to San Angelo, Texas to join the rest of the family at the hospital. Ma-Maw was strong, she held on for a long time, long enough so everyone could say goodbye and give that one final hug. After she passed, Pa-Paw asked my cousin Tonya and I to speak a few words at the funeral. I didn’t know where to begin, but I had my bible. I had started reading the bible more just that past summer. Looking back, I can see that God had been preparing me. I searched the scripture, looking for that perfect verse, and that’s when Mathew 6: 19-21 became apparent. I immediately penciled in Ma-Maw’s name in the margin of my bible. Her heart was not filled with the things she owned, it was filled with the love for family and friends. My wife Christy remembers the first time they met. Christy got a big hug and knew right away she was family. Ma-Maw had that way of being like Jesus, you just always loved to be around her. After she passed, one of the questions we had was answered: “why did God make her suffer for so long?” We learned Ma-Maw brought one of the ladies at the nursing home to know Jesus Christ, but she hadn’t spoken in probably 2 years or so!!! She led her to God with her eyes and her loving heart. God’s word lives in each of us, even if we don’t know the right words to say, the Holy Spirit will guide us when it is time to lead one of His children back home. Brad Rogers When I finally decided to follow Christ I was middle aged. My wife and I started church hopping to make sure we got into the “correct” church. After several months we finally selected one and began our journey. I grabbed every opportunity I could to work in the church. I wanted to please God. I drove the churches old Trailways bus on trips. I bought the church supplies from Sam’s. I filled the Pepsi machines, I worked in VBS, I taught Sunday school classes, I took an active part in the churches remodel and expansion projects, I went with others to teach at the City Rescue Mission and anything else they needed a volunteer for I was there. If the doors were open at the church, I was there. Then one day my world turned upside down. I lost my job. This was during the oil bust in the 80?s and there weren’t many jobs to be had. Day after day of hearing sorry we don’t have anything or no we can’t use you, started to wear on me. Why isn’t God answering my prayers? Soon depression set in and it grew more difficult to get out of bed each day to go job hunting. It was much easier to assume the fetal position and pull the covers up over my head. My wife had a job but she didn’t make enough to cover our bills. Soon the mortgage company is wanting their payments as are the people who financed our car and my pick-up. I could not understand why God was allowing this to happen to me. We were about to lose everything. After all I was one of the hardest working people in our church. What did I do wrong? Didn’t God know I was on his side? Then one night at Wednesday night prayer meeting it was all made clear to me. The preacher was reading the scripture that he was going to preach from and as I read along with him in my bible I understood what God was doing and I started sobbing uncontrollably. The preacher was reading from the 12th chapter of Hebrews verses 6-11. I now understood that God loved me and considered me a son. Gerry Rhodes A TESTIMONY OF GOD’S PRESENCE It is our responsibility as Christians to share the times in our life that has, without question, been touched and change by God. We all have difficulties in life and that is expected, although, never welcome. How we deal with them can oftentimes color our future. I was blessed to have Christian parents that taught us, by word and deed, the love and grace of our laving God. That being said, it is by this fact that brought me through the life altering times I will share with those reading this and hope that it will be helpful to someone. After a marriage of 17 years to my first husband and the father of my two sons, I was divorced. The details are not necessary but the few years prior to the divorce were painful, at best. I was the youngest of nine and there had been no divorces in the family and I did not want to be the first. Not unlike many, I prayed daily and almost without ceasing, that the problems would go away for the sake of my children. But what I didn’t realize, at the time, is that staying in the marriage was actually damaging to them. Knowing that divorce was inevitable, I got a job and placed my younger son in day care. Many days he cried and held onto me and I cried on my way to the office. Through this adjustment period, things seemed so uncertain and I was frightened of being a single Mom. Becoming so weary of being depressed, I made the decision to start my day by thanking God each morning for all the wonderful blessings I still had. I still had HIS love, my beautiful boys, a home, a job and the support of a large family. Prayer can make such a difference in how we view each day! That was the beginning of my healing and a new life. After five years I was fortunate to meet and marry a man that has made my life full and happy. Another significant experience in my life began in the month that I would turn 56 years old. Having just had a mammogram, I had a call at work on the Friday before 4th of July weekend telling me that there was something my mammogram and further tests would be necessary. The long weekend was, indeed long! The diagnosis was one that no one wants to hear and it was agonizing to have to tell my husband and children. During the next several months, as the surgeries took place, I was in prayer each moment my mind was free to do so. Of course, I pleaded to live with every prayer. Knowing that it was ultimately in the hands of God, I realized I must turn it all over to Him. I, then, prayed that if I must leave this world that my death would result in someone else turning their life to Him. Early in the morning of my first surgery, in a state of half sleep, a voice came to me and said (audibly to me) “everything will be alright.” And it was alright and, after seventeen and a half years, I am still alright. I had the greatest support system one could have, God and a wonderful husband and family. I praise God each day for my life. He is in and around us always; we only need to call upon Him. He can give us strength and courage when we are weak, frightened and facing the unknown. I once read a quote that I’ve never forgotten: “Courage is not the absence of fear, but the presence of faith!” Roberta Tyler To Me, This Was A Miracle I sat in church one Sunday, convinced inside myself, that I might as well get up and leave the church forever, and try not to think about the hope that I thought I had found when I asked the Lord to come into my live. At first, just learning about God’s ways, was so fulfilling, that I ignored my circumstances in life. But after a few months, nothing seemed to be changing in what I saw as a life with little hope. I’d come to my breaking point. I fully believed that the Lord’s offer of acceptance, if we call out in His name, wasn’t meant for me. He didn’t love, or want me! I was just about to stand up and leave the church, never to return. At the moment, the Preacher, who was right in the middle of his sermon, stopped in the middle of a sentence, and called my name. He asked if I was in the church. I stood up and said, “Yes, I’m here.” He then said, “You are in covenant with the Lord.” He went back to his sermon, just as if he had never stopped. I sat back down, at first embarrassed, that he had single me out by name in a church filled with four or five hundred people. Then, I began to realize that no one in the church, not even the people seated on each side of me, seemed to notice that the sermon had been interrupted. This happed to me about nine years ago. Life has had its ups and downs ever since that time, as every life does, but it showed my just how much God does care about every individual person who calls out in Jesus’ name. Ron Berry Reprinted with permission from “Flashbacks of God at Work: A Collection of Stories of God at Work in our Midst”; compiled by Mary M. Chase; 1998 |
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