Do you feel it? The whole world is turning upside down. Can't you see the signs?...
"And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?"

*****

I feel that this presidential election is going to accelerate earth's journey toward the last days. Wouldn't it be something if America happens to elect the antichrist in a few days? He may or may not be who we think.

*****

I just spoke with my mom, who lives in Texas. There was an earthquake there today. Who ever heard of an earthquake in Grand Prairie, Texas?

*****

Every year there are new strains of flu virus, and they have to reformulate the vaccines. The viruses are adapting and mutating because we over-vaccinate. We are also seeing diseases reappearing that we had not seen for decades.

*****

Waves of pressure and pain coming closer and closer together, like a woman in labor.
"For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences [diseases], and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows."

*****

People, are you ready? If you are a Christian, what are you doing with the talents God has placed in your hands (Matt 25)? If you do not know Jesus, you are ill-prepared for the days to come.

"For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved:"

Well, I neglected to post my Monday Progress Report for Mega Memory Month! Thanks, Ruth, for the nudge :o) Honestly, I did not spend much time last week on my memory work, but fortunately I only lacked three verses to have the entire Psalm memorized.

So without further ado, here is Psalm 91, typed from memory:


He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

I will say of the LORD, he is my refuge and my fortress: my God, in him will I trust.

Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence.

He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.

Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day;

Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.

A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand: but it shall not come nigh thee.

Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked.

Because thou hast made the LORD, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation: there shall no evil befall thee; neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.

For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.

They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.

Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet.

Because he hath set his love upon me, I will deliver him: I will set him on high because he hath known my name.

He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him.

With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation.

A HUGE THANK-YOU to my friend Tori, who not only helped me fix the problems with my blog, but also did some fine-tuning. I think it looks better than ever!

THANKS, TORI! You're a genius!



P.S....
I was wondering if there is something you can do about our bathroom?

:op

You think my blog looks bad?

Take a look at our bathroom:

Well, the graphics have completely disappeared from my blog header and posts! Please bear with me while I try to fix the problem...

I have made some progress in memorizing Psalm 91 this past week. I think my punctuation has improved somewhat... maybe... a little?

For me, there are two keys to memorizing Scripture: 1) Reading it slowly at first, absorbing the meaning of each word, and thus recording the details in my mind, and 2) Reading the whole passage often, so that it all flows together and I don't get stuck.

Here is what I have memorized so far, typing from memory:

Psalm 91:1-13

"He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress; my God, in him will I trust.

Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence.

He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust. His truth shall be thy shield and buckler.

Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day;

Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.

A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee.

Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked.

Because thou hast made the LORD, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation;

There shall no evil befall thee; neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.

For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.

They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.

Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder; the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet."

It's been a long while since I posted a furlough memory. Here we are, in one of our many "classrooms" along the way.

Taking school on the road was a real challenge to us. Sometimes we did school in the van while traveling, but it was so much easier to be able to spread out somewhere (usually a mission house or hotel room), like at this house provided by a church in Ohio.

We inevitably fell behind in the curriculum during our year of travel in the States, but I must say our children learned so much more from our experiences and the places we visited. The school of life, as they say.

Visiting the House of Representatives, Capitol building in Jackson, MI. I do not remember this man's name, but he is not a tour guide. He is an actual representative who was straightening his desk right after a session had dismissed! He was so kind as to explain to our little group the process of passing a law, as well as some of the things that were done during that day's session.



This is our family at the U.S. Air Force Museum in Dayton, OH. They have some fascinating exhibits on flight history all the way back to the Wright Brothers, including a model of their first airplane, as well as planes from all eras of flight history. Aside from the two children who passed out in their strollers, we all learned a lot!

So many photos from other places we visited along the way were lost when our computer crashed, as I mentioned before. But the memories and lessons impressed on our children will never be erased. There is nothing like visiting one of Laura Ingalls Wilder's childhood homes while reading her series of books about her life, and seeing where some of those adventures took place!

That's real (FUN) education. :o)

Blackberries are abundant (read: CHEAP) this time of year in Guatemala, as I think they are right now in parts of the U.S. as well. These were so big and juicy, Daniel couldn't resist buying several pounds of them.

That is a lot of berries.

So the girls and I have been having fun in the kitchen, baking up all sorts of blackberry goodies, and popping fresh berries into our mouths as we go.

Jillian made some yummy little tarts. (They did not last long!) We also experimented with two cobbler recipes. One consisted of a batter we put into the prepared baking dish, then just dropped the berries on top. It turned out more like a cake.

Oh, but then... Then we made this:


Using this recipe.


You roll out the pastry dough, put the fruit on top, roll it up and slice it like cinnamon rolls.


If your favorite part of the cobbler is the crust, this recipe is for you! To me, if the crust isn't good, the cobbler isn't good. This one is really good!

I am halfway done memorizing Psalm 91! My hubby and my oldest girl Jessica have helped by checking me. I will type verses 1-8 by memory here.

...But don't check my punctuation, okay?


He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress; my God, in him will I trust.

Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisesome pestilence.

He shall cover thee with his feathers; and under his wings shalt thou trust. His truth shall be thy shield and buckler.

Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night, nor for the arrow that flieth by day;

Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.

A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee.

Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked.


The Lord has really blessed my efforts to memorize His word, and shown me truths that I didn't notice before, because I am meditating on it. I have also learned that it is best to memorize Scripture in the morning, when my mind is fresh and uncluttered.

I challenge you to choose a chapter of the Bible to write upon the table of your heart! It's not too late to join us during Mega Memory Month.

...And now, I'm off to work on the second half of Psalm 91.

This presidential election has raised some charged issues, some of which I have already discussed here. Should a woman be VP of the United States, leaving her home and family behind? Well, no. But Palin has chosen a career other than homemaker, and even if she doesn't go to Washington, she will no doubt continue to pursue her political career anyway. So should Christians vote to put her into office? Wellll, that's debatable.

What is NOT debatable is that the alternative to McCain/Palin is a socialist who will do everything in his power to wipe out everything that remains of the godly principles America was founded upon.

A friend of ours, Bro. Ben Smith, recently made some comments about Barak Obama's "threefold attack on the book of Genesis". The book of Genesis is Truth 101, if you will, and provides the very foundation on which the rest of the Bible stands. While calling himself a Christian, Obama rejects three important foundational Christian principles, as quoted here:

1. [His] belief in evolution:

Barak Obama said: “I’m a Christian, and I believe in parents being able to provide children with religious instruction without interference from the state.

But I also believe our schools are there to teach worldly knowledge and science. I believe in evolution, and I believe there’s a difference between science and faith. That doesn’t make faith any less important than science. It just means they’re two different things. And I think it’s a mistake to try to cloud the teaching of science with theories that frankly don’t hold up to scientific inquiry.“

God said:

Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

2. The support of gay marriage.

Barak Obama said:

In a carefully hedged statement, Obama said he “respects the decision of the California Supreme Court.” He respects a decision that disregarded the will of the people in California, as expressed by a 2000 referendum that defined marriage as between a man and a woman; he respects a decision that excoriated his own position of support for civil unions and (theoretical) opposition to same-sex marriage; he respects a decision that rejects the sort of political compromise he extols. It’s like a professed abolitionist in 1857 saying he “respects” the Dred Scott ruling.

God said:

Genesis 1:27 So God created man in his [own] image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

Genesis 5:2 Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.

Matthew 19:4 And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made [them] at the beginning made them male and female,
Matthew 19:5 And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?

3. The support of abortion.

Barak Obama said:

"I am going to teach them first of all about values and morals. But if they make a mistake, I don't want them punished with a baby,"

God said:

Genesis 1:28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

So what should we conclude?

Romans 3:4 God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.

There are several things that Christians can do to be salt and light in this world. We must pray for those in authority. We must witness to others about Jesus. We must live godly lives, separated unto the Lord. And when the opportunity arises, I believe we must do what good citizens do, and that is vote. Even if it means voting for a "lesser evil".


Our absentee ballots just arrived in the mail. We intend to use them to cast our votes against the man who hates God and rejects God's Word. And may the Lord have mercy on America for a little longer. We love her.

I really love sewing, and I really love aprons, so this was a fun project for me! Best of all, I was making it for a dear friend's birthday present, so it was all the more a pleasure.


The pattern is a McCall's. I was going to make the frilly view B, but wasn't sure she would like it. I settled on view C, but added some lace to make it feminine, just right for my friend.


I used fabric that is a bit heavy, but not as heavy as denim. Perfect for a sturdy apron!


This was my first attempt to make bias tape, and - wow - that is a lot of folding and pressing! It was so worth it. I am really pleased with the nice finished edges. But I'm seriously thinking of buying a bias tape maker, folks.


The lace was super-easy to add in. I like this apron so much, I'm thinking of making one for myself.

...After the bias tape maker arrives. ;o)

This is the new mega-store in town. It's called "Cemaco", and it looks kinda like Sears, or maybe a mini-Sam's.


We went to check it out yesterday, but I didn't bring the camera, hence the photos of the ads! They have a little bit of everything, I think.


(The prices are in quetzales. Divide by 7.4 to get the price in US$.)


Oh, see that brown and black "welcome" mat on the left? We bought one of those for our front door. It is so nice, and really knocks the mud off all those little shoes that come in and out all day!


I got a little bit glassy-eyed walking through the kitchen gadget section. Look straight ahead and just...keep...walking....


And look! A real lawn mower! It used to be that you had to go all the way to the capitol to find those. Probably because most people here still used machetes to cut the lawn, lol.


Looky here, right next to the modern fixtures are the big, multi-use pilas. What? You don't have a pila in your house? LOL! It is used for everything from washing clothes and dishes, to bathing children. Now that I'm used to my pila, I don't know how I ever did without it!


And here are modern roof shingles, next to a modernized version of the Spanish tile.

How things are changing here in our beloved Xela! Modern conveniences sure can make life easier, but it makes me a little sad.

Can't quite put my finger on why.

Well, it is over at Ann Kroeker's blog anyway, and I think she has a good thing going! I'm thinking now is as good a time as any to memorize another large portion of scripture, so I am jumping in.

How about you? Is there a particular passage of the Bible that you would like to memorize? I hope you'll join in, and post a comment to let me know what you are going to memorize during the month of October.

I already have the first two verses of Psalm 91 down!