bragging on my nephew

I've been meaning to post these pictures for several days but kept getting involved with other things and forgetting them. The very distinguished man in the tuxedo is a self described "plain ole Navajo man from sagebrush country," my nephew, Irving Nelson. The second picture is his 'everyday self."

On October 7th, he received one of the first two Prism Awards ever presented from the Smithsonian National Museum of American Indian! "The NMAI Prism Award is given to a person who labors tirelessly and lagely anonymously in a tribal community to improve the lives of community members in some way. ...the Prism Award reminds us that it is in the communities throughout Indian country where the most important work is done. Prism Awards recipients forge strong, healthy , civic-minded communities. "

The Smithsonian provided transportation and lodging for him and his son, Christopher, to and from Washington DC. He attended a Gala Dinner on the sixth and the Award was presented in special ceremonies on the seventh. The young man on the right is Christopeher, Irving's son. I don't remember the name of the man in the center. Some dignitary I believe.

Irving has been the director of the Navajo Nation Library System for 32 years. He has worked tirelessly during that time to improve the extent of library branches and the quality of the library collection. He has also implemented the increased number of volumes to exceed 73,000 books! Many of these have been donated by organizations and government agencies that Irving has lobbied personally.

In addition to the Prism Award Irving received a lifetime achievement award at the Tribal Archives, Libraries and Museums Conference that took place at Portland, Oregon, on October 17th.

I'm so proud of him. But I look at the distinguished man and still see the ornery ten year old that was in my Sunday School class on the mission. This is one of those times when I see the truth of the verse, "Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it." I know Irving has had ups and downs in his life but I trust that some of the lessons we did in Sunday School had an impact on the man he is today. When he wrote to tell me of his award, his first sentence was: "Praise to my almighty God!!! He has blessed me with my job that I have had for 32 years and has blessed our main and branch libraries with thousands and thousands of free books from donors across the United States."

And I do praise Him for that.

connections

Several years ago I had a good friend and co-worker who shared a fascination with me about strange folk sayings. You know, things like “cute as a button’ and ‘cuss a blue streak’ and ‘acting like a suck-egg hound.’ Some of the sayings have obvious roots, but others are pretty obscure and seem to bear no relation to anything real. I mean, just what is ‘cute’ about a button? And cussing I can understand, but why a ‘blue streak’? I can also understand hound dogs that steal eggs, but just how would they act? Linda and I were always coming up with something old but new to one of us and looking for the source of it. We enjoyed trying to find the source before the other one did.

One of our long term favorites was ‘a goose just walked over my grave’ or sometimes, “a ghost walked over my grave.’ It is used when someone has a sudden unexplainable chill or shudder. When Linda died we were still tracking the source of that. Both of us could easily understand a goose walking or even by a stretch of imagination, a ghost, but how can either of them walk over my grave when I’m still alive? And why would a saying like that come into being? Who would ever think that a goose walking would cause a chill whether it walked over a grave or not? Why would anyone say that to start with and why would it have endured for so long? We were still looking for the source when she died.

I was reminded of her this morning when someone used the term ‘kit and caboodle.’ I wondered about the word ‘caboodle’ and what it meant. I assume that it means all the junk that goes along with having a kit of any kind. A first aid kit has a lot of items in it. They can get all jumbled together and you have a ‘caboodle.’ I guess. It’s easy to figure out what a saying means, but sometimes knowing the source of the archaic word is fascinating.

Linda died of a lingering illness after several months. She was saved a few weeks before the Lord took her home. I remember I carried a heavy burden for her and prayed for her not only in formal prayers, but at odd moments in between times. I wasn't picky. I asked the Lord to heal her or save her. I would have liked both but one was sufficient-especially the one He gave me.

I can almost pinpoint the moment when she gave her heart to the Lord. I was driving home from work, praying for her as I usually did. There was a tape playing…”far above the sounds of battle there is victory for me…” In the midst of my prayer my heart went from weeping to rejoicing. The burden lifted and I was filled with blessings.

I could only accept it for what it was—an answer to prayer. I had absolutely nothing to support my ‘feeling’ except the blessing, but I began thanking the Lord for saving her. A while later, I spoke to her sister who had been talking with her about her soul, and she told me Linda had given her heart to the Lord the day before. I didn’t need to ask her what time it had happened.

It is fantastic how little things can bring back a flood of memories.

mmm

Oh yes, I wanted to tell you about my fabulous egg sandwich creation. Because of my starchy carb free diet I can seldom have bread. Usually I'm okay with that but sometimes I get a real hankering for it. Rachael, bless her little heart, found this whole wheat bread, Nickles 100% whole wheat bread. It has 16 grams of carbs per slice, which is about the same as other breads, but this is compensated for by 3 grams of fiber and 5 grams of protein. It is a great alternative to white bread which has often has 20 carbs with only 1 gram of fiber and 2 grams of protein. And for some reason, thank goodness, it has a positive effect on my glucose numbers. Of course, I can't eat it every meal of every day, but I can occasionally have a sandwich or toast.

Anyway, enough of that. I like egg sandwiches but because of my standing-time issues, I'm not able to stand comfortably long enough to manufacture them. That process also includes standing and scrubbing the frying pan besides the preaparation.

I found a better way! Microwaved food can sometimes be disappointing, but this works!

Assemble: bread, thinly sliced deli ham (not chip-chopped, real ham) American cheese slices, 2 eggs, butter or margarine. two small containers-one microwavable sprayed with cooking spray. fork, knife.

Here's the part that prompted the whole thing- Sit down! Of course it helps to have a kitchen arranged so you can reach everything,but still...

Toast two pieces of bread-whatever kind you like.

While your bread is toasting. beat two eggs in a bowl, pour them into the microwave dish prepared with cooking spray.

Microwave the eggs for 1 minute.

When the toast pops, spread each slice with butter

Put a slice of cheese on one piece of toast.

When the minute of microwaving is over, flip the eggs. (They will be done on one side, but slimey on the bottom. )

Return eggs to microwave for 10 seconds.

Separate the ham slices -as many as you like.

Put the hot eggs on the slice of cheese,

Immediately spread the ham slices on top.

Place the other piece of toast on that and wrap the sandwich in a paper towel. The heat from the eggs warms the entire sandwich and melts the cheese!

Get your coffee or orange juice.

Breakfast is ready. hot ham and cheese with egg on toast! It's great. Tastes good. Easy prep. A whole breakfast in 3 minutes. Easy clean-up. Rinse the dishes and knife under hot water with a drop of soap....or toss them in the dish washer.

Trust me, try it.

beautiful day!

I wish I could adequately describe this day. The sunlight is almost blinding and the sky is as clear as any I ever saw in New Mexico! It was cold last night, but this morning is just nippy enough to make the dogs hustle. I was up early to make sure Michael's coffee dripped and get his lunch in the bag. Then I took my coffee and came back in and sat down. I think I fell asleep because the next two hours zipped past.

I heard Rachael thumping around upstairs getting ready for work. This is a switch. SHE is usually the one leaving early, but today one of the Kroger stores is having a grand opening and she had orders to be there at 11 AM. I heard her making noise at nine oclock and, although that was a little early for a 10:30 departure, I went ahead and got up. Then I got involved with my blood pressure cuff and didn't get moving quite as fast as I intended. She came down stairs about 15 or 20 after nine. She said her boss had called and said everything was in a tizzy at the store and could she get there right away.

Rachael was chuckling because her boss has a tendency to rile things up more than straighten them out and the employees at the store were probably already suffering from stress exhaustion. She has a talent for looking chaos over and discovering which string to pull that will straighten out the mess. Then she diplomatically straightens the whole thing out. I'm sure Monna was looking forward to her arriving and doing just that.

Oh! I'm so glad those days are over for me. I always did my job, but I never enjoyed telling other people what to do... I much preferred being with the kids, teaching them and having fun. Rachael gets her take-charge attitude and ability from her Navajo heritage. Navajo women are strong and never afraid of speaking their minds.

I'm going to trundle on down the road now. Maybe I'll sit out side in my new jacket and enjoy the sunshine. I hope your day is as beautiful as mine.

I've found a lot of photos on the web, but this has to be one of my favorites. Balloons-exuberant,soaring up, lifting into the sky! Sometimes I picture my heart as one of them-ebullient with praise and joy.

I woke up from my nap this morning after Rachael had gone to work much earlier and leaned back thinking how wonderful that I could wake up and just be joyful--no apparent reason as far as events in my life are concerned, nothing special has happened to bring a particular joy-but I was, and am, joyful. Now I'm not always philosophical at this hour of the morning and when I looked for a reason why I should be so happy at 6:30, immediately the hymn popped into my mind. And you know, this is the only reason to be joyful after you were up since before 4:00AM.

I will sing, hallelujah, for there’s joy in the Lord,
And He fills my heart with rapture as I rest on His Word;
I will trust in His promise; I will shout, I am free;
In my blessed, loving Savior, I have sweet victory.
Refrain:
There is joy in the Lord, there is joy in the Lord;
Hallelujah! glory, glory! there is joy in the Lord!
There is joy in the Lord, there is joy in the Lord;
Hallelujah! glory, glory! there is joy in the Lord!

I will live for the Savior, I am His evermore;
I am resting in His favor, I am safe and secure;
For the light shining brighter on my path every day
Cheers my happy soul with rapture as I walk in the way.
Refrain:

When I reach heaven’s portals, in that land of the blest,
I shall sing with holy angels of this rest, happy rest;
I shall dwell there forever with my Lord and my King,
And with everlasting praises make those high arches ring.

--DS Warner

And I still haven't learned to post the recording here so as always I'm giving you the link if you don't know the song: http://library.timelesstruths.org/music/There_Is_Joy_in_the_Lord/hifi/

evangelists

(A message from October 11, 2009 in the evening. )

A few days ago I listened to a message by brother David Chancellor from Moore, Oklahoma. Some of his thoughts had a deep impact on me and I took a few notes that I want to pass on. I was particularly thrilled by his distinguishing between the work of the evangelist and the pastor. It was a thought that was entirely new to me and my heart was excited at the truth of it. I’m not claiming to be passing his words on verbatim or exactly how he presented it, but this is the message I got from it. And it blessed me.

He pointed out that the emphasis for many years has been on the role of the pastor who is called to care for the sheep. But the evangelist’s role is to reach those who aren’t in the sheepfold. There are many good pastors today, but there is a need for evangelists to go out among the American people today.

The work of an evangelist is to speak to people who don’t know anything about the Word or Jesus… Consider Paul’s message on the unknown God.
The work of a pastor is more to preach to people who do know, but need to be better grounded. An evangelist has a gift for presenting the message to those who know nothing about the Bible or God.

There really are a lot of people in America today who have no idea of what the Bible says. We try to get them to come to ‘church’ but when they do, the language is almost incomprehensible to them because they just don’t have the background we do. Without that background in the Word, they simply don’t understand what is being preached.

Paul faced this problem in Athens, but he took the one thing they DID know, the ‘unknown god,’ and turned it into a message they could understand. I never thought of it quite that way before, but isn’t that great!

“A church without evangelists is like a business without salesmen.” Someone has to present the product in a manner that all men understand how it benefits them. Someone has to present Christ to people in a way they can understand. Quoting scripture at them has little impact. Seeing and hearing about some path that applies directly to them (and then discovering later that it is from the Bible) gains their immediate attention. Many people are looking for solutions to their problems. They are looking for answers to their questions.

The answers and solutions are in the Bible, but we have to have a knowledge that we need to go look there. We (the people of God) need to supply some of the answer or solution and the knowledge of where to look before we present the Bible.

First people need to be convinced that there IS a God and Christ is His Son. They need to see Him in the Lives of His People. They are convinced He is real by seeing Him in action in the lives of his people. It does matter how we live and what we say and where we go. Seeing Jesus in our lives may be the thing that prompts them to go looking for what is missing in their life and to pick up a Bible to find it.

Brother Chancellor related a testimony of a young teen living in a the Soviet Union when it was a communist country a few years ago. The concept of atheism was being pushed in the schools. The teen sat in one of those classes and thought to himself: “If there is no God why do people work so hard to convince me there isn’t onel” It happened to be snowing this particular day and the young person lived in an area where snowfall was infrequent. He wanted to be out in the new falling snow and he spoke in himself saying, “God, if there is one, make this snow last long enough I can get out in it.” It snowed for three days and the young person was led to begin searching for the reality of God. That happened without the intervention of an evangelist but it demonstrated that something has to prompt the search for God and His direction.

Brother David spoke of cultural differences…. The impact on me was that we cannot outright condemn cultural traditions up front. Some understandings come only later in our walk with God. Others may not fit in our own perception of what is good, but there may be nothing wrong with them before God. Let’s understand that our moral standards may not be those of another culture. ( for ex. Chinese women’s traditional casual dress with trousers: one of my biggest quandries. vh.) Let’s not allow those cultural differences be so much at the front of our mind that we are condemning them before the message of God and Jesus is ever presented. Let’s first present the wonder of a Heavenly Father and the Salvation he presents through His son. We can let the cultural differences be taken care of by the Spirit after the convert learns what it is like to live for God!

I hope I’ve done justice to the message. I apologize if it isn't presented as brother David intended. Remember this has been strained through the element of my understanding and perception. There was more to it that this, but this portion was the part that rested most heavily on me. You can go listen if you want to. http://www.moorecog.org/sundaynotes.aspx

This morning when R&M had gone to work, I sat down to finish looking through a pile of catalogues that came in the mail yesterday. The first one I picked up was one that heaven knows how it got to my house, but it was full of ‘Christian’ gifts. I don’t know what I was expecting, but by the time I finished looking at it I was disillusioned.

Now I like cute dust catchers and stuff hanging on my walls and cups with pretty pictures as much as the next sentimental woman, but after looking through this catalogue I don’t think I’ll like them quite as much in the future. The book was full of cutesy ideas for “promoting our faith”, and “building a witness” and “proclaiming our allegiance” and “testifying of Salvation.” There was a plethora of necklaces and bracelets and key chains: all of them purporting to be a “constant reminder of God’s Promises,” “encouraging words before us,” and “shining reminders that God hears our prayers." There were bracelets with John 3:16 and I Corinthians 13:13 engraved on them. There were charms with faith hope, trust, love, and kindness logos dangling from them. Cross necklaces with inspirational words engraved on them promised to ‘make a statement’ of your faith designed “to start thoughtful and faith-provoking conversations where ever you go” There was even a crystal cross proclaimed to be ‘faith filled finery.’ Inside it was a mustard seed and a couple sprigs of greenery! And there were military ‘dogtags’ adapted with scriptures and witnesses instead of the standard name and serial number….

There were statuettes and plaques and wall hangings and appliquéd banners, each designed to be a "silent and constant" “proclamation of your faith.” One was declared to be a “silent testimony to the Creator.” A set of wind chimes was designed to remind us every time the wind blows that ‘we are not alone.’ There were religious symbols modeled onto lapel pins, tie tacs, ball-point pens, key chain fobs . There was even a ‘prayer crock’ with a pretty floral heart and a pad of small note pages. Prayer requests were to be written on the papers and placed in the jar where we could “rest secure in the knowledge that your heavenly Father hears you.” There were coffee cups and travel mugs and candle holders and neck ties! ( For goodness sake!) All of them designed with pictures and sayings to be a ‘silent witness.’

Now I do believe that there is a real need to be a ‘silent witness’ in the world today. There is a crying need for sinners to see men and women of God quietly and faithfully living out the gospel message. Now that is not to say that we should never speak of our salvation and what God had done and what He requires of us. No, no, no. But too often there is too much talk and not enough living. False religion has substituted much speaking for liv[ing] soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world.

Now we come up with these religious messages plastered on all kinds of chintzy objects, shouting out isolated words and scriptures and pictures, all designed to circumvent the crying need for righteous living. If we LIVE out the message of Christ in righteousness and holiness, we will have an impact on those we live with and meet daily. There must be a dramatic difference between the Christian and the world. If there isn’t, all the cute mottos, and necklaces and coffee cups and plaques and teeshirts will be worse than useless. These things plastered across the living space of men and women living like sinners but proclaiming their spiritual connection have a negative effect--instead of drawing people to God, the heap scorn and negation on the very name of Jesus.

I once knew a lady who liked to wear tee shirts with scriptures and cute religious sayings on them. She was ignorant of any message of righteous living, so some of the fault must lie with the men who served her as pastors, but her fits of temper and bad language belied the message she sanctimoniously proclaimed on her tee shirt. People had no confidence in her and by association, no faith in God either.

Now some of the things in the catalogue were pretty. A couple of them I thought I’d like to have myself, but not to substitute for a holy life. I liked them for the same reason I have pretty pictures hanging on my wall. They were pleasing to the eye; but I wouldn't depend on them to proclaim a message of salvation. To do that, I depend on living a consistant life for God. If you walk into my sitting room…looking around right now…there is no visible indicator of my religious belief. Even my Bible is on the shelf behind my chair and not visible to the casual observer. But anyone who spends any time with me, I hope, will find a difference between my attitude and lifestyle and that of most senior citizens.

If you like the kinds of things I’ve been talking about, that’s okay. There really isn’t anything wrong with most of them. So if you have religious things hanging on your wall and your coffee cup says "Prayer changes Things" I'm not faulting you. However, don’t rely on them to proclaim your salvation. Do that by living righteously before the Lord and your neighbors.

The scriptures keeps running through my head: Whose adorning let it not be that outward . . . But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price. (I Peter 3:4-5) Granted this is speaking of women and their penchant for jewelry and fancy hair dos and fine clothes, but it is certainly still applicable to all children of God regardless of their gender. The hidden man of the heart clad in a meek and quiet spirit is the greatest witness, not plaques on walls or banners or neckties or necklaces.

Okay, I’ve vented.

(Don't forget. Go see http://chosenhighway.wordpress.com )