Well, It Makes Sense

I got this in an email this evening. Had to share because I thought it just made a lot of sense:

Three Things to Ponder:
1. Cows
2. The Constitution
3. The Ten Commandments

COWS
Is it just me, or does anyone else find it amazing that during the mad cow epidemic our government could track a single cow born in Canada almost three years ago right to the stall where she slept in the state ofWashington? And they tracked her calves to their stalls. But they are unable to locate 11 million illegal aliens wandering around our country. Maybe we should give each of them a cow.

T H E C O N S T I T U T I O N
They keep talking about drafting a Constitution for Iraq . Why don't we just give them ours? It was written by a lot of really smart guys, it has worked for over 200 years, and we're not using it anymore.

T H E 1 0 C O M M A N D M E N T S
The real reason that we can't have the Ten Commandments posted in a courthouse is this: You cannot post "Thou Shalt Not Steal," "Thou Shalt Not CommitAdultery," and "Thou Shall Not Lie" in a building full of lawyers, judges, andpoliticians....It creates a hostile work environment.

Happy Birthday to Becki Horne!!!!!

can't have a birthday without a birthday CAKE!!!!

How's that fast coming????? he he he he

Testimony from Niles, MI

The Great Lakes region has yet another reason to shout the victory. The Church at Niles, MI, recently was blessed in the extreme. I'll start at the beginning ... "a very good place to start" (Julie Andrews, The Sound of Music). :D

Anthony and I weren't here for all of what happened, but we've heard the testimony of it by those who were. Niles, MI, is a church of ours on the southern border of Michigan. The Lord started the local church in 2005 when the small congregation began meeting in the pastor's house. They knew they wanted a building to worship in and the people have testified that they really thought they would only be afford to find a small "shack". It wasn't long before someone who knew Brother Bentley (the pastor) and the church's situation called him with news about a church that had gone up for sale and thought he ought to go take a look. Well, Brother Bentley went over and took one look and immediately thought there was no way the church would be able to afford the building. It was older, but big and pretty nice. An old Presbyterian Church. So he went home with little belief that that could possibly be the church for them.

But the Lord began to deal with Brother Bentley and told him to have faith to believe that He would provide. Brother Bentley called the congregation and had them meet him at the building. The Church laid hands on the corner of the building and began to pray in faith and claim the building for God's Church. Then Brother Bentley called the number and worked out a deal where the church could rent the building with the option to buy. The minister from the Presbyterian Church agreed to the proposal and allowed them to rent the building for a fairly low monthly rent.

The Lord was still dealing with Brother Bentley about purchasing the building, but Brother Bentley knew the building had been listed for around $130,000, (I might be a little off on that price, but I know it was pretty close to that) a price not affordable to our congregation.

They continued to rent the building and pray for God's leading. During one service Brother Bentley announced to the church that God had put a figure in his mind of $50,000 for the building. Sounds ridiculous to the flesh, doesn't it?

Soon after that, Brother Bentley had been on the phone talking with the other minister and the other minister admitted to Brother Bentley that the church was really a nuisance to his people and they really wanted to get rid of it. They had dropped the price to $100,000. Significant drop, but still not within our means. Brother Bentley explained that he still didn't feel we could afford that price. The minister then asked him what figure he had in mind. Brother Bentley didn't want to say $50,000, sure that the other minister would laugh or scoff or worse at such a ridiculously lower figure than what they were asking. But an amazing thing happened. The Presbyterian guy actually made that exact proposal: "How about just $50,000?!!!!!!!" The two came up with a $250 payment a month for ten years with a balloon payment at the end!!!!! And that was the deal we accepted.

When God tells us something, we can believe it is the truth. I am amazed at the deal that was struck. In the flesh, it is unbelievable, but in the Spirit, we can know that God will do what He says He will do. And we know that ALL things are possible .......

Memories

Got this Idea From Kasey's Blog:

Memories:1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that we had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot; anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses.If you leave a memory about me, I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. Have Fun!

Also, I think Angie Munoz has started blogging again. :-) Go check it out at angieshouse.blogspot.com.

And maybe Marsha's going to start blogging again???? marshasblog-mylife.blogspot.com.

Yay!!!! More blogs to read.

CAMP ... I MEAN CAMP!!!!

In the recent post about camp, I wrote that it's been a few years since our region's had a convention, but I meant to say CAMP. I've changed it, but I know some have already read it and wanted to correct my mistake. Oops. Sorry

Our Shocking Regional Convention

One of the prominent adjectives that comes to mind when I think about convention is shocker!!! We had such a wonderful time in the Lord. He truly blessed the folks that were there, including me. I haven't shouted like that in a while and it felt so liberating. Anthony preached his voice away ... literally. I was so thankful the Lord anointed him so.


So why is shocker the word that comes to mind, you ask. THAT has to do with appointments. Anthony and I have been out of active ministry for I guess three years now and have been desiring to get back into the ministry. One of the things the Lord told us about moving here is that we'd be used again and we were so excited about that, but we didn't know the extent to which we would be used. But we're fired up and ready to get in there and really work the positions we've been given.


Anthony was appointed regional ABM coordinator and Evangelism coordinator. And district overseer for Michigan, Northern Illinois, and Eastern Wisconsin. Sounds so weird, doesn't it? The Dyers working in WISCONSIN and MICHIGAN and NORTHERN ILLINOIS. The Dyers who started their married life and ministry together in GEORGIA. I'm still in a little bit of shock that we're so far north. The district overseer position was a HUGE shocker for us. We want to be used, though, and we're sooo ready. I was appointed editor for our regional paper and regional WMB coordinator. I'm so excited about the work. I loved doing the school newspaper at the high school where I taught in MO, so you can imagine my excitement about doing something similar for the church. We're beginning to plan for trips and can't wait to meet the rest of the region and see all the churches. I've begun looking into ideas for ladies' retreat and am really excited about planning that. So we're just praying for direction and God's blessing on the work we do for Him and for The Glorious Church of God.


I did somehow get one picture of our water baptism at camp. Hopefully, I'll get some more pics for the paper when I call some of the pastors and ask around. Here's one pic, anyway.

OK, I guess it's really a video. Dork that I am, I had the camera set to video instead of portrait while taking this "picture". *rolling eyes* Anyway, it was Anthony's first time to help with water baptism so it was really neat for him.

Anyway, we had a wonderful convention and are now looking forward to Minister's Convention. We are probably not going to get to go to the Assembly unless the Lord makes a way, which is something we're praying for because we'd really like to go, but we were so blessed to get to go last year. We'll see what happens. The hotel's been a handful for Anthony lately and I know he's not too keen on the idea of leaving right now with several problems at hand. But we'll see. I know God can make ways where there seems to be none. :-)

Camp and Stuff

So here are some pictures of where we live. We've never lived in an apartment complex before and were apprehensive about it, but we weren't yet ready to buy and the apartments are nice. There are benefits to living in an apartment, which are a tremendous help to us right now, mainly no yard work or maintenance to the place. The other thing I'm loving about choosing to live here is that our gas and water is included in the rent payment, which will be a HUGE blessing this winter.

The apartment's very small, but there was a blessing that went along with that, as well. Because there's very little storage space, Anthony and I agreed that before we moved, we were downsizing A LOT. And when I say a lot, I mean MEGA-HUMUNGO. (ha--my made-up word for the day) To make a long story short, when we lived in Ringgold, GA, we lived in a beautiful 3 bedroom house and each move since then has been to a smaller place, but instead of throwing junk away, we always had a garage to use as storage. This time, no garage. 'Erego, we downsized. First we had a yard sale and were blessed to make around $600!!!! Praise the Lord for that!!! The rest we either donated to goodwill or threw it away. And we arrived in this tiny apartment with no more than what the small amount of storage here would hold. It felt soooooo good. Still does. I feel more organized and just ... dejunkified. So, so, so very happy. Why do people do that to themselves? It's ridiculous.

Anyway, so here are the aforementioned pictures:

It really is pretty here. And I'm still loving the mild summers. :-)

So we got back from our regional family camp and convention last weekend. The Lord was soooo good to us. Aparently it's been a couple of years since our region's had a camp, so we didn't have a large turn-out, but it was still good. They're getting back on their feet. I think we had around 25 at the camp and others who came to visit during the days. We stayed in a cabin that had individual rooms for each family, and we all fit in the one cabin, which was great for fellowship. Jackson had a blast. I only wish there'd been a few more kids closer to his age. There was only one other. But still he had fun.

Each night the evening services were power packed. The Holy Ghost moved in incredible ways and all were blessed. I believe I have my numbers correct that there were three saved, two of which went on to sanctificaton, and nine water baptized. There were also claims of victories over strongholds and healing ... physical and spiritual. The Lord impressed Anthony to preach on having victory over fear. Great messages. Praise the Lord!!! He's so good.

Our classes were great. As I mentioned before the theme was Peace and we learned about being peacemakers. One of the most eye-opening concepts to me that we learned was about being peace fakers, which is just as bad as being a peace breaker. The peace fakers are the ones who pretend there's no problem when there is. They want to smooth things over or run away from the conflict, which just allows the problem to fester. Great Bible teaching. It's important to know how to resolve conflicts Biblically ... very needful for all of us.

I want so badly to post some pictures from camp. And I had every intention of doing so. Yep, showed up with my camera ready to snap away ... until I realized my battery was nearly dead. Yep, it was my duh action for the event. Always gotta have one of those, you know. Still kicking myself. Hopefully, I can get some pictures emailed to me from some of the others who were there.

We went into our regional convention Saturday evening, which was also greatly blessed by the Lord. I'll go into that in my next post. Until then ...

I'M BAAAAACKKKKK!!!!!

We moved. Again. And were able to get internet access. Again. So, after approximately 12 rounds of trying to remember my password and FINALLY getting it right, I'm back in business. Yay!!!!





I haven't been on the blogs in quite a while and am afraid I'm waaayyy behind on how everyone's doing. I'll try to revisit my old haunts and let everyone know I'm back. Hopefully I'll be able to find everyone's blog that I used to visit.





Well, as I mentioned, we did move again. This time we ventured north ... Indiana, to be exact. Anthony was promoted in his company and is managing a Comfort Suites in South Bend. He's actually been here since late March, but Jackson and I were finally able to get here just about two weeks ago. We're soooo happy that our family's back together. Those were the longest almost three months of my life. It was rough. I did get to make two trips up and Anthony got to come down a couple of times, but those trips were never long enough and almost made things worse when it was time for him (or me) to go back.





So we're ten minutes from the Michigan line and very close to Lake Michigan (less than an hour, from what I hear). Never dreamed we'd live this far north, but you just never know where God may take a person next. It's beautiful up here. And the weather's been just gorgeous. It's July and our hottest day so far has been 85, but for the most part it's stayed in the mid-70s. Wow!! Little humidity and mild temperatures in June and July!!!! I'm lovin' it!!! Yes, yes, I know what you're thinking. We'll pay for it this winter. I know. I'm dreading the winters up here and, frankly, almost scared of them. But we'll learn to manage. Somehow. :-/





We're getting ready to leave tomorrow for camp and our regional convention. Any tips on how to handle a 3 1/2-year old at camp would be greatly appreciated. I'm a little nervous about this. I'm teaching the senior campers, which should be fun. Brother Ammons has chosen some really neat literature. It's about being peacemakers and I've been reading the book The Peacemaker by Ken Sande. I highly recommend the book. It's quite poignant and sticks to Scripture really well. It's great teaching fodder. I'm excited about the teaching part. The part about having a very challenging 3 1/2-year old at camp ... well, not so excited about that part.





Here's a picture of the hotel my husband's managing. It's in South Bend, IN, which is where the famed University of Notre Dame is. We went and toured their campus in February when we came up to check this place out and decide whether this was somewhere we wanted to live.

I'll try to get some pictures of the area up soon. There is some really pretty scenery around here.

Our church is in Niles, MI. We love our little church. We're small but we're fired up and I believe this church has a shared vision about where we're headed. It's exciting. We're believing the Lord will do great things for Niles. Pray for us.

Well, some laundry's calling my name. I'll try to get those pics up soon. Take care, all.