News — prayer

Happy New Year!  It is the beginning of the Jewish New Year and a perfect time for a personal retreat.   A personal retreat is about taking time to get away from everyone and everything and allow Holy Spirit to revitalize our spirit, soul, and body.  We carve out room to spend an extended time with God and allowing Holy Spirit to do what He wants to.  Get away from your daily routine, celebrate His goodness and listen for His instructions for the upcoming year.  It is like taking a weekend with your best friend. To live the delightful life God...

    St. Patrick's Day is coming up soon.  It's time to switch out the Valentine's Day red and pink for Irish green and gold.  I don't do a lot, just replace table runners and entryway décor.   Some of my ancestors came from Ireland during the Potato famine. Like other immigrants over time, they came with the hope to experience a better life for themselves and their children. They prayed to be free from those who oppressed them and have the freedom to worship God.  Let's join our prayers with the prayers of our ancestors for future generations to...

Wow, there is so much going on in our world right now, it is easy to be frustrated. Steve expressed this perfectly the other day. He threw up his hands and said, "I'm done! I can't stand to listen to the news anymore." He was feeling frustrated, angry, and disappointed.  It seems our lives and future are being played with by a government that doesn't care. The uncertainty of what life will look like over the next few months and years has us unsettled. So what can we do?  We pray! Yes, I hear you. You're saying, "I HAVE been praying!...

Last month, we decided to have a garage sale.  We spent a lot of time going through everything and cleaning out stuff that had acuminated.  Believe me, the garbage men earned their keep for a couple of weeks!  During the sale, a couple came in with two adorable, little boys.  I soon realized that English was not their first language.  I had a bucket filled with toy dinosaurs marked $2 for the bucket.  The mom and boys went through the bucket one by one.  After some discussion, they brought one over to buy.  I told them they got the whole...

 Last week, while looking for something else, a ran across The Suverkrop Letters.  This is a collection of letters from 1842-1847  written by Steve's great, great, great grandfather and  grandmother, Isabella Ann Smith Suverkrop (1819-1903) and Edward Albert Suverkrop (1814-1895).  The paper states that the letters "provide an intimate glimpse into family life and society in America and Scotland of more than 150 years ago." The collection is 122 pages long describing some details of their life; her trip to across America, parties she went to, their wedding, San Francisco fire, Gold Rush, and living in Washington in the 1860's....