Texas wedding

Our youngest grandchild is now a married woman. Halee Marshall married Marshall Holland in August - it was a lovely wedding. The bridal couple is shown below. Marshall is a student at Texas Tech University in Lubbock.

Quite a few relatives and friends gathered in David & Shannon's home - it was funny to see the number of laptops furnishing part of the entertainment... including mine! We gave David's network a good workout. ;)

Tuned in

I am a fan of classical music and enjoy listening to it on radio, TV, tapes, CDs and my Ipod. Pictured above is the Philadelphia Orchestra from http://www.gophila.com/. At church this past Sunday we sang a worship chorus with "The earth is filled with His glory" in it and I thought to myself there are many people who would doubt that statement. Then I remembered about 30 years ago when we got a pre-owned car which had an AM/FM radio in it. I had heard about FM broadcasting but had never been able to tune it in. I was driving somewhere one evening and decided to try it. Over the air came beautiful music, and I was delighted! Just think, this awesome music had been available for a long time but I had not been able to tune in and hear it.

If we want to be fully aware that the earth is filled with God's glory, we've got to be tuned in to Him. When that happens our entire being is changed! 2 Corinthians 5:17 states, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he (or she) is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" Howard likes to say that Jeremiah 33:3 is God's telephone number - " 'Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.' " In John 3:16-17, Jesus declared "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him." That's how you too can tune in to all of God's extravagant love and forgiveness!

Marge


Scriptures from the New International Version of the Bible

Motorcycles

Our friend, pharmacist Bill Altland, is a motorcycle enthusiast who lives on Prince of Wales Island in southeastern Alaska. He recently went on a 19,215 mile trip to Tierra del Fuego in South America. He kept an excellent blog and you can read it by going to Whale Tail Pharmacy's website and following the links on http://www.whaletailpharmacy.com/.

Enjoy!

Alaska ministry

Thanks to PictureTrail.com, we've been able to put on the Internet a slideshow of Howard's ministry in far west Alaska. I think you'll enjoy it. The address is http://www.picturetrail.com/marshallministry

Marge

"Meadows in the Mountains" is a daily devotional program into which the Lord has led me. Its focus is: More of Jesus, less of me. I gained inspiration from Joan Cavanaugh’s book by that name. She writes, “The uphill road we travel is especially discouraging and tiring to the overweight — unless you catch a ride in a powerful car. The word of God is that power. Finding what we need and using it to overcome our very real problem is what this book is about. God helped me to find the special vehicle that helped me to the top, and He told me to share it with you. So hop in! Welcome to an adventure in overcoming!”

The details are on-line at www.spaciousskies.us/Meadows.html.

Focus on Today

2008

This year I'm concentrating on Matthew 6:34 in The Message version of the scriptures. (See http://www.biblegateway.com/)

"Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes." -Jesus Christ

I so often find myself getting stressed out over things beyond my control and "awfulize" - sort of expecting the worst to happen. And of course it's a waste of my time and effort. So if I concentrate on what Jesus said, I'll feel better automatically.

Marge

Christmas 1952

Howard & I didn't spend our first Christmas together. I was in Lyons, Kansas and he was stationed aboard the USS Piedmont, AD-17. Here's an excerpt from the autobiography he's writing.

1952 - One of the more enjoyable responsibilities of my job as chaplain’s assistant was at Christmas time aboard the Piedmont, when we had a Christmas party for Japanese American orphans. We had 85 of the children, boys and girls. Our ship had appointed a "committee" to buy toys for these 85 children as well as new clothing for each. They had the sizes for the boys and girls and made purchases and brought them back to the ship. So, for a number of weeks before the party, it was my job to gift-wrap these toys and I believe the clothing marked for the age of the child and for either a boy or a girl.

Our chow hall was converted to a large party area with a Christmas tree and all the gifts under it. But... before the Christmas dinner, each child was taken to the "head" for a shower and their new clothes, then came dinner for everyone, followed by Santa Claus coming to present the gifts. It was an afternoon that was well spent and the children went back to the orphanage fed, newly dressed and happy with their new toys. I need to tell you about the 6 year old boy I had for the day. His name was Joey Chan and by the time we parted, I was ready to adopt him. He and I got along quite well. I ignited an almost-fire when I wrote home telling them I would like to adopt him! Marge and I had only been married 6 months and it just was not meant to be. There has never been a Christmas like that one in Sasebo Harbor, Sasebo, Japan.