Memorial Box Monday: Picture of My Neighbors

Well, I must say my adventure in Missional Halloweening was a tremendous success! 

As the Florida vs. Georgia (Go Gators!) game came to an end, our family (and friends) transitioned to be at the ready for "our neighbors".  It was a tiny bit chaotic at first but we quickly got the kinks worked out. 

We had a backdrop set up with props, a table with the printer ready to go. We all came out and loved on our neighbors!  

I'd say, generally, families were surprised, then delighted at the gift of a free picture.  Then the entry for the drawing was icing on the cake.  It was great calling out to those parents standing and observing from the roadside and saying look we are taking pictures of families and we have a gift basket that you can enter to win.  It brought most (and I mean most) up the drive to talk to us.  It was great!

The Family Gift Basket (regretfully I did not get a pic) was the best!  I loved parent's faces when they realized we were doing something just for THEM.  It was great to watch parents that were standing at the street edge be lured up to my house with the prospect of something great for them :)  

For next year, and there WILL be a next year, I need to get two cameras working maybe two printers and a larger back drop for groups.   Bigger and better for sure! The thoughts are a plenty!  Probably going to try to get more neighbors involved.  

Here is some fruit of our labor:

 

Look at this family! Some great neighbors of mine! 

Picture used with permission. 

This precious neighbor encouraged me so much when I called to request to use her pic.  She had been sharing with every one how kind that was and what a great idea.  I confessed to her that I used to be a Halloween avoider (to put it lightly) and she said  "You know sometimes we are the only Jesus they see. ...this made an impression"  (many other nice things, thanks!)  That call was amazingly neighborly.  It was a call of conversation past... "how are you?" It was two ladies and connection, brainstorming, problem solving and being Friends!  It didn't start because of Halloween, because we started talking before their house was even finished being built; but it was "furthered" because of Halloween. 

Further reaching relationships is what I am looking for! 

I do have to admit I had one regretful moment. A moment where a teenager wanted to enter her mom in the drawing (the mom was at home) and I "nicely" didn't let her. I handled it kindly, I kept to the mission or serving parents that were out with their kids, I could excuse it as doing the right thing; but that is a tiny moment, with lasting impact, I regret; but will learn from it. I was not Jesus to her. 

I think... ahem...know- this idea will grow and become something HUGE for next year. I can't wait! 

Now, I have slips of papers to pray over (from the drawing).  Note cards to send out.  And a whole new bunch of neighbors to LOVE!


I  had to post one more pic, of the baby grand:

Zeke

The Rottenest Little Dalmatian Ever! 

Note-his mom "made" his costume. She is turning into quite the little home-maker, who'd 'uv thunk it :)

I am going to place the first picture (of my neighbors) in my Memorial Box to remember the mission God placed in my heart 2009!

Another note:
Re: My original post  Missional Halloween-  had some great comments!  One comment in particular I want to follow-up and post about what my kids have thought about us not participating in years past, but time is escaping me and that will come another day :)

Memorial Box: Pine Cone

A few weekends ago we went to a wedding at the end of the post I said "Praise God for His miracles in allowing "coincidences" to turn into a place  to stay for FREE (3 bedroom town house-together! FREE) !  Our Lord is So good!"

Well that set of coincidences is the Memorial Box story for this Monday.

We served in our church youth department for many years.  After several years my husband began a college guys bible study as many of our youth had moved on and some were no longer connected with our church. It was a way to keep them connected to the Lord and provide accountability.  It has been 3 years or so since the group no longer meets but we have stayed connected with the guys.  One is actually now our son-in-law.

Well one of the young men, Brandon, invited us to his wedding last summer.  He was marrying his long-time girlfriend whose relationship went all the way back to our youth-ministry years.  Their wedding was lovely!  It was such an honor to be witnesses as they made a convent with our Lord to be man-and-wife forever.

Well, the reception was a sit down affair where you were assigned tables.  The couple has arranged the tables with photos of all the places they had been together.  It was neat to see that God had taken this couple to Daytona Beach, Paris,  Boston, many more... well we got sat at EUPHALA table.  Euphala?  Well from the photo I could not tell where in the world Euphala was.  Was it an African village, who knew with all the places those two had been over the years?   Well, later on in the evening someone else that sat with us made the connection-that was where their family had their lake house.  OHH! We knew of the lake house and trips there but we had no idea the place was called Euphala, Alabama.

Well, fast forward and our neighbor/like-a-daughter Lauren was getting married in October I knew we would be traveling as they were getting married closer to where the couple attended college.  Not being sure of where, I called Lauren to see about plans and explain how to book a block of rooms and I asked "where" and she said they were getting married at a mansion in Alababma about 1 1/2 hours from their school a little town you have probably never heard of:, Euphala... Wait! Did you say EUPHALA?

Immediately my hubby and I  thought "do you think Brandon's dad would let us stay", I mean it is at least worth an "ask". The worst he could say is no, and we would understand.  Well, through a few conversation it was decided that we could "barter" services and get to stay at the lake house for free.  My hubby worked on their pool and we had a place to stay for the wedding. A 3 bedroom house on a lake!  Amazing!

It was SO wonderful to have the whole family under one roof all married but Hunter.  It was nice too to have a place to invite out-of-town family back to-for fellowship and catching up.  We had a full kitchen so we ate for $20 per couple and saved big time!  No hotel costs!  It was amazing.

Watching the sun rise over Lake Euphala was amazing!  Not one morning did I miss it thanks to promptings from God Spirit to "not miss it".  Not one minute Lord!

So, I will have a tiny pine cone in my box to remind me of the pine cones by that lake side. 


No, doubt God goes before us.  Sets events into motion long before you ever have any clue.  Such a beautiful tapestry HE creates.  Glory to God!

Chris, Big Zeke, and Auntie Brittny

Watching TV @the lake house

The "Brittany's"

 

Hubby & Me 

(I look like a ghost that belongs at the mansion)

Brittany (Matron of Honor) & Chris

Brittny & Clay

Big Zeke in his "tux" onesie

The Bride & Groom Praying under the Chuppah

Mr. & Mrs. Richard Coe

In front of Shorter Mansion- Euphala, AL

I'll post family pics when they come back from the photographer. 

If you don't know what a Memorial Box is Linny explains it HERE

And if you are really bored and/or like to look at old homes here is a video I found on youtube of the mansion

Heart of God

Not sure if you have heard of having a Memorial Box for your family.  I heard about it a few months ago and I think it is the neatest idea!

Man I missed Monday AGAIN!  but I am posting this anyways!

This Memorial Box  story is represented by a RED GLASS HEART!

“Jen wake up!” She hears the words but she is dazed as she awakes from the much needed nap.  “Is she dead?”  She asks.  He leaves the room only to return with a solemn look and a nod.  She weeps, not for the mother she has lost but for the girl that is left behind.  It seems so long ago that she was a happy newlywed without a care in the world, though it was only two and a half short years ago.  How things change. 

Now the marriage seems like a farce and her only parent is gone.  “What am I going to do?” she asks herself.  She looks down at her mother.  She grasps her mother’s palm, gently removing the red glass heart that had been placed there for her by a friend to, quote “hold on to the heart of God.”  It was still warm.  Surely she is not gone.  She had heard of people hovering over their dead body in near death experiences.  Could she be seen by her dead mother?  She better straighten up.  Chris Wright was a strong woman determined to be independent.  She would want her only daughter to be strong, in control, and unemotional.  But she could not hold back the tears.  Though selfishly she was only crying for herself, it was too late for her mother. 

She looks around the small room that used to be an office; now conveniently converted into a mother-in-law suite.  Things foreign to her home now presided over the room: a hospital bed, bedside commode, many medicine bottles just steep reminders that her old life was gone.  She remembers back to a few weeks ago when she had fought with her mother. She was cleaning the room and her mother was not as big a fan of tidiness as her daughter.  She asked her to stop, “just let me finish.” Her mother looked annoyed at the response but said nothing.  Later after she had bathed her mother they were working together to get her dressed. She was just trying to help when her mother responded harshly with “let me do it myself!”  To which she replied “I just want to help you, it would be so much easier for you if you would let someone help you!”  Her mother responded angrily and it shocked her “You are cleaning my room when I don’t want you too, touching my stuff, and I can’t even take a shit without you there, you have to bathe me. I just want to try to do it myself”  “Mother you have two broken arms, why do you have to be so difficult?  Why can’t you let someone help you?”  Her mother began to cry in a way that she had not heard in a long time.  Only a few times had she had the opportunity to see her mother cry.  But she had heard this cry before it was a broken hearted weeping last heard when her mother had lost her mother.  She was not expecting this.  She remembers her mother pointing for her to leave and she obeyed; then went to her room a fell across the bed and wept for her mother and prayed.

She glances around the room and pauses as she looks at the door and is reminded that she came back to her mother and asked if she could explain.  Her mother obliged.   “Mom, Your whole life you have done everything for yourself. You raised yourself, you raised your sister, and you raised me.  You have always done everything for me I ever needed.  Will you let me return the favor?  I feel helpless in the situation and the least I can do is help you take care of yourself. I want to.  We need each other and God isn’t going to let you die until you let someone do something for you!” She hated that she had brought God into it.  She wasn’t completely sure how her mother felt about God.  How could this be such an important topic and she was afraid to discuss it with her mother.  She knew her mother had had her baptized as a baby, and was not antagonistic when as a young teen she had told her about her committing her life to Christ and being baptized in the Atlantic Ocean; but she also knew that this was the same mother that had never been to church with her, who she had never heard pray, and that when they found out she was over 5 months pregnant had said “if you had told me about this sooner we could have done something about this” implying abortion.  These last few months of dehumanizing cancer had turned her mother into something entirely different than she was before:  Someone completely dependent on another person for the most basic of human needs.  She realizes as she sits alone, that that conversation as painful as it was was a healing experience for both of them.  She was glad she had said that because from that point on things had been easier. 

As she sits in the chair beside her mothers bed looking upon the shell of her mother’s body she realizes her whole life all she ever wanted was to be loved.  That is why she fell on the ground and begged for Jesus to enter her heart because the minister said “He would never leave us or forsake us and loved us as we were”  That is why when a young man paid her attention she gave her heart away without thought or care.  She remembers three days earlier she heard the words she always wanted her mother to say.  As a young girl she would say them to her mother and wait only to be disappointed that they were not reciprocated.  Paramedics were bringing her mother in through the back door of the house.  They had brought her home to die.  That is what she wanted.  She was very heavily medicated for the trip to try to make it as comfortable for her as possible.  She had been in a great deal of pain as the cancer had eaten through her bones causing fractures.  As they wheeled her into her room she opened her eyes and looked around and an overwhelming look of peace passed over her mother’s face.  Her mother looked into her eyes and mumbled three tiny words that will forever reverb through her life as the three greatest words.  Though her mother was heavily medicated and her speech was slurred the young woman knew with everything that was within her what her mother had said… “I love you”. Her mother never spoke again or awoke fully again.  As she sit starring at what was not her mother at all, but something like a shadow, she knew she was loved.  She knew she had always been loved, but something about those three words, she knew that only God knew how badly she needed to hear them. She knew that they had to have come from Him, the one who infinitely loved her.  She rose leaned over her dead mother and gently kissed her hand and said I love you.  Then she held up what was in her hand, gave the red object a good look and then tightly grasped “the heart of God.”

Thankful for my first born

 One of our favorite photos!  She is 3 with a new puppy.  I love the necklace!

The beginning:
I had her when I was but a babe myself.  I was 15 and scared to death.  I remember crying on the school bus and seeing a beautiful sunset and knowing that God did that just for me because I was sad and it was beautiful.  He was showing me HIS glory! I begged asked God to allow her to be the child that ended a long line of unwed mothers.  2 for sure 3 possibly (I think my grandmother married because she was pregnant).  I dedicated her life to God on that bus.  I knew she was a gift from God and I was not going to mess this up. 

Some things I am thankful for about her:

• She increased my faith in God's plan
• Made me grow up
  
• Gifted
• Christian
  
• Beautiful
• Wise beyond her years (we joke she was born 30)
• Serious (she is more mature than me)
• Loves babies
• Going to school to be a nurse
  
• Level headed
• Faithful
• Obedient
• My mom got to love her before she died
  

Some background tidbits:

She went to public school until 7th grade; but then she decided she wanted to be homeschooled.  She was not allowed to date.  She was very active in church.  She went on mission trips to Mexico and The Czech Republic.  She learned to drive in our "Big Black" suburban;  she is a great driver and I miss that suburban.  Her favorite book as a teen was Authentic Beauty by Leslie Ludy.  She made funny videos with her best friend that provide laughter-until-tears to this day!  At 17 she got a dog named Snickers that I call my "grand dog."    



Another beginning:

She came to faith in Christ at 6 years old.  The person that led her to the Lord? her future mother-in-law!  Who would ever know at 6 that she would marry her son--GOD! Now you have to know these were also the people who invited us to the church in the first place.  We were not close friends.  Just coincidence? I think not.  It was God working out his plan long before we ever knew anything.  There were many things that happened in the the years between this young couple coming together.  But I love how it all ties back to the beginning.  

Courtship:
She was 14 when she started talking to Clay.  At 15 we knew it was more serious than a friendship.  We allowed them to court to determine if their relationship was "the" one.  That continued with more "good times" than bad and without either of them hating us for keeping them apart (though I am sure they had their moments).  We allowed time together in family settings.  The goal was for them to be above-reproach.  They weren't allowed to go anywhere alone together until she was almost 18.

He proposed shortly before she turned 19.  We proposed they had a long, tough road ahead of them because they were young; but that they would have our support.  Our, sorted, history would benefit them; because we know how many pitfalls in marriage there can be; and we would be sure to point every potential one out; which can sound negative when you are young and in love, but it is us just being honest. 

Here she is 17 years later (than previous photo) shortly before our beloved precious had to be put down.  We had to "re-create" one of our favorite photos.  Precious was very sick so we couldn't make her roll over.  She was 20 and Precious was 17. 

Another, another beginning:

Here she is on the night long awaited and asked of God.

Where HE showed me HIS faithfulness and beauty in His creation and timing.  A night where an all consuming peace came over me and I felt like He was saying to me "well done thy good and faithful servant." As we gave her away to her husband, we knew God was with her and was in this future the way He was in the past.  She married a man of God, she saved her self for that night, to present her self as a spotless bride.  A good friend of mine said "you did it" and it meant the world (she knew the back story); but we both knew GOD DID IT!

This couple has an army of believers backing them up on this journey.   They are girded on every side. For that I am THANKFUL!

This is an "In Everything Give Thanks" post started by Steffany

See the top right corner of my blog for more of what I am thankful for.   

*I am adding to this post a link to A Place Called Simplicity Memorial Box information.  I want to start a Memorial Box and this will be my first story.  I will represent this story with a "SCHOOL BUS"