DRY CREEK CONVENTION REPORT 2014

And now a brief report on our yearly Dry Creek Convention 2014, thanks to Sarah Jepsen for the concise wrap-up.

Hello,

Convention weather was relatively mild - mostly above zero weather.  It was bearable for our guests.  :)  Since convention, we had a couple of days of gusty cool wind keeping the temperatures in the above zero teens.  Tonight, the temperature has dipped to -10* and will probably get a little colder before the night is over.  

The convention was excellent with a very few guests.  We were pleasantly surprised to see most of the Delta church group show up for our meetings.  We enjoyed them immensely.  

Thomas led worship for our first service on Wednesday morning.  As usual, the first service is a little rough, but that wasn’t Thomas’ fault - no one’s fault but our own.  Bill Grier opened the convention by greeting everyone before having Joy Beebe Keller give a testimony.  Joy has one boy and has since had five miscarriages.  She talked about how in the first month or six weeks of pregnancy, the woman’s body supplies everything for the baby, till the placenta takes over.  She talked about if one part of her body didn’t do it’s part, the pregnancy would abort.  Joy likened that to our spiritual walk.  Bro Buddy followed with a word on God’s love being conditional and about vertigo and not trusting our senses - Only God can change us.  Bro Joe closed the meeting with an exhortation on “Come let us reason together’ meaning that we should listen to God’s opinions.

Thomas led worship for the second meeting on Wednesday before Bro Bill Grier preached out of Isaiah 45:11 "Thus saith the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, Ask me of things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands command ye me.”  He said we should command God as well as praising and adoring Him.  Bro Buddy preached again concerning being taught by God and giving up everything, including our lives, in order to keep that which we cannot lose.  

Thursday morning began with Ben leading the praise.  Bro Ernest preached first on our calling - he reminded us that we are never fully aware of when our call comes nor of how much it will require of us.  He talked about a book, A Higher Calling 

by

 

Adam Makos & 

Larry Alexander.  He exhorted us to differentiate when to move in either the spirit of the Lamb or the spirit of the Lion.  David DiGloria preached next on the wisdom of God in ordering our steps through the laboratory of life in the mundane.  He urged us to “continually resort” in God’s habitation as talked about in Ps 71:3.  Bro Bill closed the service by reminding us to get up front in the war and to stay there.  We had some special moments of prayer for George Harris and Andy Trotter when the meeting ended. 

Ben and Bonnie led worship for Friday’s second meeting.  The John’s preached on this evening.  John Basalyga preached on the corporate call on our lives, reminding us to get engaged with what is happening around us.  John Jeffreys followed with a sermon on God inclining His ear; his text being 

Psalm 46:1 "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”  He mentioned that our reasonable service is one that we have reasoned out and made a conscious choice to do.  Bro Joe closed the meeting talking about us having more personal government over ourselves.  At the end of this meeting, we had a special moment of prayer for my brother in law, Greg Joss, who after a few days of having the flu started having seizures with a high temperature of 105*.  

Tom and Jeni led worship for the last meeting.  Bro Joe’s text was from the Song of Solomon.  His sermon was quite involved, but his theme was on keeping our own vineyards - we can have the knowledge of God in our head, but do we know Him? Our focus needs to be on God.  Bro Buddy closed the convention with a very short exhortation on “does God know you?”.  We can Know God, we can know ALL things, we can have all the gifts, and we can do mighty things, but does God know us?  He closed with “God is a rewarder of them who diligently seek Him.”

Remember, my summarization of the meetings is MY ruminations of what I heard and gleaned from the meetings; my summarizations may not necessarily be the intended theme of the preacher.  (my disclaimer)

Debbi’s husband, Greg, was released today from ICU to a less icu-ish room. The doctors feel like Greg has meningitis caused by the herpes simplex virus.  Greg’s temperature is stabilized  his seizures quit after 12 hours, and his soft restraints have been taken off.  His heart beat is very erratic (35 - 150 bpm).  We are praying for a full recovery.

We had Saturday and Sunday off for family days - for rest and recuperation.  The ministry left early on Sunday morning, chauffeured by Garth Milliron.  If I understand correctly, the Haines convention should be over.  The Hoonah convention begins this coming Friday.  

I need my beauty sleep.  Talk to you more another day.  Love, Sarah

Hello!  Every day we have a few more minutes of precious daylight, and we are seeing a little bit more sunshine each day too!  It’s good for the spirit!  Despite the extra sunlight and daylight, we still have had some temperatures plunging into the -30’s but mostly staying in the -20’s.  Each day, it warms up to 0* or 6*, but drops below zero again at night.  We did receive around 2 and 1/2 inches of snow last week which covered up some of the debris from that wind storm we’d had in January.

Buongiorne news: Pat continues with his Macomb Piano work and keeps busy with that, taking as many jobs as he can. Some that take him away from the farm for a few days, trying to generate funds…aren’t we all!! Especially with the soon-to-be-implemented Obama Care which sounds like a nightmare, good to know that God is in control and He will take care of us as we put our trust in HIM! 

I continue to try and get my humble translation business up and running, but it is proving to be a very competitive market. I do enjoy pro Bono work with a large Gospel International outfit and audio recording for Livrivox which are quite enjoyable. Of course, most of my week is busy teaching Rob with the help of some excellent professionals from the AGSD and the REACH (Resources for teaching Alaska Children at Home) Academy who provide us with many resources for teaching a student like Rob. I am very thankful for these excellent providers. 

They also include Rob and myself in their spring field trip, which usually takes us to places in Alaska I would never be able to visit on my own. So far we have been in SE Alaska, Juneau, Haines, Homer, Yukon, visited salmon hatcheries and Alaska native heritage places, travelled on ferries and small boats. Last year we went to the Seward Marine Center, which is very well done and has a state-of-the-art research facility as well as an aquarium. This April the plan is to ride the picturesque White Pass Yukon Railroad, you can find info on it here

http://www.wpyr.com/

Recently finished recording the popular "Martin Fierro" which is considered "the" Shakespeare of Argentina. Two fellow Argentinians were doing it with me so it was fun! I got to practice my very rusty "porteño" for those who are wondering what that is, it's the type of Argentinian Spanish spoken by folks who are from Buenos Aires. The other 2 readers were from the province of Entre Rios, where my mother Stella Leeson still resides.

MONDAY, MONDAY ...

Top 'o the morning to you all!

Here a brief blip from my friendly neighbor...

Happy Monday!?

This morning the Northern Lights are out, and it is 9*.  Last Thursday night/Friday morning, we were all awakened to the strange sound of rain on our roofs.  It didn’t rain very much (of course, I don’t really know for sure since my weather instruments blew over), but it was enough to make everything soggy and melted and messy and for most of our ten inches of snow to disappear.  Later, around 8 am, an amazing Chinook wind blew in, blowing for nearly 6 hours when it suddenly just stopped.  

The whole interior experienced wild weather - three inches of rain in Valdez, slippery roads everywhere, Richardson near Valdez had an avalanche, school was closed in Fairbanks and North Pole.  I heard the road between Fairbanks and North Pole were closed for a little while.  The road to the Pogo mine was closed.  And, I’m sure there are more stories.

In the mean time, after the wind and rain, Thomas and Tommy hopped on big machines and Garth hopped on his little machine. The guys flattened the roads and walkways so we can get around a tiny bit easier than slogging through April sized ruts.  There is debris everywhere with no hope of a fresh snow covering before convention.  

Jennifer’s grandfather, Ralph Horender, passed away this past week.  The memorial service is being held today.  If anyone wants contact info for Jennifer or her mom, send me an email.

We’ve been doing convention clean ups and cooking of foods this past week.  As mentioned, our meetings start on Wednesday morning at 10 am.  Second service will begin at 4 am.  

Whitestone had quite the time with their convention since their ice bridge went out the day before they were to begin.  They began boating again.  They try to keep the boat trips contained to daylight hours due to ice in the river.  That made travel more difficult.  

I’d like to chat on, but I must get myself ready for the day/week.  Have a good one!  Sarah

Thank you Sarah, now back to me...

It seems we will be having a pretty modified convention for 2014, what with the weather conditions, and FM and TM being more spread out it seems. the northern farms are getting to be a little more arduous for all to travel as time goes on. The Lord knows.

Some of our more senior population has been advised to stay in their cabins and/or wear cleats since the trucks that are pretty much the only vehicles able to go around in this slushy mess, leave deep ruts which are hard to navigate when they are frozen and hard and slippery. I WEAR MY ice CLEATS ALL THE TIME AND THEY ARE A FALL SAVER...I can't afford to fall on the ice and get hurt, not fun. Rob recently told me: "Don't worry Mom, I'll watch over you!"....awww

Here is a link to the wind storm taken from my porch.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10202391926591249&set=vb.1585591801&type=3&theater 

Further down south on the Alaska Highway which passes infront of our property, there have even been snow avalanches. Check this link out! This happened in Valdez which is relatively close to where Pat and Beth live. Wow Scary!!

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10153777611315215&set=vb.844415214&type=2&theater

During the wind storm I even had a young man help me to the Tab since I kept being pushed towards the snow banks even walking a short distance. The boys, Rob included, enjoyed that time of strong winds to practice a modified form of parasailing. This entailed climbing into a palstic sled and spreading their coats out to act as sails and letting the wind blow them away. I took a short clip of their activities from the warmth and protection of the high school vestibule. Here's a link to the boys having fun.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10202391686265241&set=vb.1585591801&type=3&theater 

January has been an amazing month for the Aurora or Northern Lights. Here is a link to some of the photos others have taken.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.526327810771258.1073741866.458149150922458&type=1 

Have a great week everybody!

 

 

 

 

JANUARY 2014....

Hello Family & Friends,

Mid January already? Convention approaching? Wow! I won't apologize, have been busy...good busy I hope, how about you all?

WARNING: THIS WILL BE LONG. FEEL FREE TO DELETE OR SCROLL...haha

Earlier this week, we had +10° with three inches of fluffy snow.  Friday night the temperature started steadily dropping until it reached -37°.  And that’s where the temperature is happily sitting now. 

School break is over and every one here has returned to school.  College students in Fairbanks start their classes later this week.  Liz Jepsen spent a month with us which was nice. Now she's gone back to UAF and to her studies. During the break, many folks were hit with a cold or flu bug – some people had it really bad.  It seems that everyone is recovering now.

Kevin and Kelly arrived home this week.  They had a wonderful time with family (new family for Kelly) in Montana. Garth and Kim go to Anchorage this weekend to pick up Jarred and Jennifer from the airport, they had bee visiting family in New York. 

Garth and Kim will stay down there to chauffer the ministry till they reach the Delta area.  Convention schedules are different this year – very different for us.  Our dates are January 29, 30, and 31.  We probably will lose all our visitors; we will miss seeing all of you all so much.

Miss Rose has moved into her little house – I don’t know whose house to mention that it was – I think it was built by Steve Doerter, but then Millers, Nerbonnes, Stoebers, Miss JoAn, and I’m sure others have lived in their since.  When my family first moved here, all six of us stayed in that downstairs with the Doerters while the McClains lived upstairs.  We stayed there for six weeks while we got our cabin ready. 

The last two weekends Kim with Ann and some of the ladies spent time working on a Kevin and Kelly’s quilt.  Gail Eastwood and Penny Clark spent time helping too. They were a great boost. 

I failed to mention in an earlier email how much Michael Squires and Robin Buongiorne helped Seth this past summer with the pig program.  Seth and some of the other young boys built a small but new pig barn.  They also transferred all the chickens from the old barn into a new fixed up barn that had individual chicken cages with waterers and feeders.  Rob was the barn helper which I'm sure Seth appreciated, it being a rather nasty job. Rob will sorely miss Sefers as he makes his move to Whitestone Farms to start his new life with his bride-to-be Amariz Ramirez. All Seth's and his crew's efforts paid off; we have plenty of pork for awhile and the chickens seem to be contentedly producing eggs without munching each other.  Tommy killed a few more beef cows this week.  Seems like we are amply supplied with meat for awhile.

Griselda and May are home from their jaunt in the states.  I haven’t seen them yet, but Patrick said they were having a great time with Ani. The girls had a good time visiting with each other. Ani is doing well and happy, exploring various options and possibilities as the Lord opens up different choices.

You can see photos on Facebook at these links.

https://www.facebook.com/griselda.h.buongiorne/media_set?set=a.10202323052629443.1073741984.1585591801&type=3

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10202323168512340.1073741985.1585591801&type=1&l=8cba546fe9


Bro Andy spent some time in the hospital this week while the drs worked on helping him clear up his long term infection.  He is home now and still needs our prayers.

Wenda announced the other day she will be Great DeeDee once again.  Paul and Rebekah had a little girl this fall; now Scott and Kristen are pregnant. 

later……

ICY SHEET OF FROZEN WATER MAKE FOR HAZARDOU DRIVING... STAY HOME!!

 For all you people in the Delta area, we just had a call to say that it’s 37 degrees and raining in Delta.  He said the rain is turning to ice when it hits the roads and that those on the roads are driving slowly and that many people are fishtailing.  Chris said that closer to Fbks the roads seem to improve, but he’s not sure since he’s not actually going all the way up to Fairbanks.  (Chris is driving from Delta out to the Pogo mine.)
Here at home, it is 30° with no precipitation as yet.


The Land convention will be next week (Wed, Thurs, Fri) so everyone here is scurrying around to make preparations – food, cleaning, finishing the tab bathrooms, etc.  It is a little on the crazy side.  I guess Whitestone’s convention starts on Saturday.  Some of our people will go for a few of Whitestone’s services, esp some of the loggers who will have to work during ours.

Some of the kids are still coming down with the flu bug.  Every time we think it’s done making the rounds, someone comes down with something again.  Poor Chloe Mason has gotten it the second time around.

John Basalyga is here for a few days visiting his folks since the Ministry is visiting in the Delta area in between conventions.  His visit is a huge boost to Sis Millie, who, by the way, is doing excellently.

Garth and Kim are home from their travels until after our Haines convention.  Then Garth will begin his chauffeuring job again.

Tommy butchered two more cows last week; yesterday, Tom and Kevin did most of the work before the rest of us helped finishing with packaging last night. 

No more farm news for now. Hope you all have a good weekend.

No more for now. Stay warm and Stay inside...

SEASON'S GREETINGS AND A WONDERFUL START OF THE YEAR FOR ALL FRIENDS AND FAMILY!

Hello all,

This morning's -27* sure feels sweet after the last night's -47*. Last week we had several days of -45 degree weather; the temps warmed up for the weekend and long enough for us to go caroling in relative comfort before dropping down again.

Since it was rumored that the temps would drop to very cold weather for our traditional Christmas Eve caroling, we did that the day before Christmas eve, good thing too since we've had -40 weather ever since! A good time was had by all, Rob even got to ride the proverbial "jingle bell sleigh", complete with one horse. Thanks Amaris for getting him on the ride! And Thanks to Hannah Mason for staying in the Tab and getting all the hot choc and goodies ready for the cold carolers!  :)

Sarah and Mark took some good night shots, which I was not able to capture very well with my humble set up. We've had a few days of between -40 and -50 degrees.  Today there is a slight breeze which is steadily bringing the temperatures up.  

The Buongiornes spent a quiet Christmas dinner evening with Floan at her cabin. A nice dinner and some simple gift giving at the end.

Pat and Bethany and the twins, came out for Thanksgiving and stayed for a week. It was a very nice visit. The girls are as cute as can be, sociable and very vocal. Such smart little poppets! They will say their name and also their color, Ella-Purple, Esssie-Pink. So sweet! Had a wonderful time with them.

Proud parents Pat and Beth are now home owners having closed on a nice house recently. Pat is getting it up to snuff before he leaves on his Prudoe Bay job on the slope. He will be gone for  2 weeks and back for 2, an arrangement which will enable them to plan family activities with more  accuracy than when he was out on the fires. God speed Pat!

GrammaGri was able to visit Beth and the girls TWICE, this past summer/fall. Driving down to Palmer with Wenda Lawrence and Janice Blohm was a treat, such lovely scenery at that time of the year. Both times Pat was on a fire though.

 Some  farm news:

Our last day of school was Tuesday.  We will start school again on January 6th - because of how the weekends fell, we have more off time, sorta.  I'm not complaining!

Wenda has been gone for a couple of weeks visiting Stacey and her family in Kansas.  I can't say that I'm not a little jealous - I had such a good visit with them last March.  Jarred and Jennifer have taken off for a couple of weeks to visit family in New York.  Kevin and Kelly have gone to visit Kevin's family in Montana for a little bit of time.  Jo has gone to Vegas to see her sister, Sarah; plus some other family members are there too. Jessy is spending some time in Canada, mainly at Headwaters or Evergreen.  

We are sure happy that Steve and Judy returned home.  It was like we were missing an arm or maybe even a leg. 

Sis Millie is doing well.  She only comes out on Sundays for service.  She sure enjoys any mail that comes her way.  

We spent three nights in the past couple of weeks putting up our beef meat.  Thank you, Tommy, for that!  

Bro Andy is looking into some second opinions concerning his condition.  We are hopeful about that!

Val and George are spending some time in North Carolina with their children.  I'm praying that in every way, this is a healing time for them.

Tony's horse calendar is ready to buy if anyone is interested.  I also have a few more of mine, if anyone failed to get theirs.  

Saturday May and Gri are leaving for 10 days with the Tesis, Karenza and Ani. Also will try and squeeze a farewell to our sis Alejandra, who is moving to Chile for work for a bit. 

All in all, it has been a good year, very busy and many changes. The biggest for us as a family - The Buongiornes - is that our youngest daughter Annie - Anne Marie - Ani - has been living in TX for about 6 months already. A big adjustment for all of us but I think a good one, new opportunities and goals. God is good.

We thank each and every one of you for staying in touch and reaching out. Closing this short Christmas-news-blog-end-of-year, with the prayer and the wish that 2014 will be a good, peaceful and prosperous one for us all!

God bless you,

Gri

Dec. 9th. 2013

Hi!  We've had zero or above weather all week.  For the last two days, it seemed that the thermometer was stuck at 8*, but I notice that this morning, we're at 15*, so the thermometer is not stuck.  :)    We received just a smattering of wet sleet on Friday; it was enough to pack down the remaining unblown away snow and to make the roads slick.

We had an excellent service yesterday - Paul Basalyga was here visiting - he led worship.  Sis Margaret preached on roots and the importance of the roots drinking from the right sources in order to have healthy plants and fruit - of course, she was likening the roots to us being planted in the right place as stated in Ps 1:3.  Sis Wenda shared as well.  We had our usual prayer requests for Bro George, Bro Andy, Sis Millie, Ralph Horender, Dora, Christine, some unspoken, and more.

I noticed that Tommy killed some beef cows this week so we'll have some beef meat coming up soon.  We are really enjoying the pork meat that Seth provided for us by getting and caring for the pigs till butcher time.  We are selling some of our eggs at Alaska Feed for $3.50 a dozen for cash or $4/dozen for in store trading/buying.  That's pretty cool, I think.   Tony and his boys have been madly selling hay and straw to all sorts of people.  I think Tommy sold some sides of beef to Delta Meat and Sausage too.

Pat, self and Rob managed to get in some Snowshoeing this weekend. Went for 2 miles to the Lynx trap, so named because it used to be...well...a lynx trap :)

Jo Cox and self have gotten in 2 trips down the backside of the sawmill trail, kindly opened up by Brad Cox. This leads either up the Horn Mountain or to the Alaska highway. We just take it for about  total of 45' a nice little workout. Amazing how dark it still gets so soon! By 4 pm it was getting dusk.

 A few folks are taking some time to visit family and friends during the holiday season. May and I are leaving for TX on the 28th. for a couple of weeks. Can't wait to see my girlie Annie, my sister Karenza and meet all the folks there. Hope to be able to get in a drive to Springfield MO to visit my sis. Alejandra and her family. She will be leaving for Chile in March so if I want to see her - now is the time. She will move to Chile for 2 years completing an academic Fellows position and responsibilities,  at the research university in Coyhaique. This research branch is part of the Universidad Austral of Chile. I am sure Alejandra will do admirably although she will be far from all of us for a while. Here's a link to the place.

http://patagonia.uach.cl/

The Aurora has been amazing the past few weeks. This taken by Delt photographer Sebastian Saarlos. Neat huh?

I'd love to run my mouth more, but I've goofed around too long writing other messages and now I must get going to devotions and school.  Have a great day and a great week.

THANKSGIVING 2013 AT DRY CREEK, ALASKA

Good-morning! Thanksgiving's come and gone and Christmas is peeking around the corner…wow…already??  Where has the year gone to one wonders?

We had a most excellent Thanksgiving Day and a wonderful weekend filled with family and friends.  Kathryn and May and the high-school students did a superb job on the Thanksgiving food.  (I was pretty worried because Bro Andy has done it for so many years that he probably writes his to do list with his eyes shut!)  Bradie wrote and directed a skit for the high school and jr high students to perform.  That was well done.  Brad had a poem to share, but I forgot to get it from him.  Oh, we called Andy and Sarah Jane with speaker phone and had a big group sharing of hellos and such! THAT WAS SO COOL TO HEAR THEIR VOICES!

We had many guests that swelled our numers to about 130 folks:  Ella and her parents; Lizzie; Jake & Phanta & family; Don & Liz Werhonig & family plus their babysitter plus one of Charity's boys; Sam & Marki & family; Penny Clark; Meghan plus a couple of friends; Marki's dad; Pat & Bethany & the twins ELLA N' ESSIE; Toby & Marie; Paul Trotzke with Katie, Tom, and Eli Steer; Koehlers; Stephen & Melissa; Jewel & Lee & Vanessa; Kylin & the kids (Andrew had to work); Peter & Stacey; Joey; Kenny Chartier who is up working in Fairbanks for awhile; I think that's all of them.  And, Sis Millie came out to the meal too!   

During Thanksgiving Day, the kitchen sink disposal decided to quit working - not a good day for that.  The kids dealt with that superbly.  Rich has since purchased a new disposal, and Garth kindly installed it.  I sure miss Steve Squires in times like that; he usually has a spare stashed away somewhere. 

Dan Ricciardelli preached on Sunday morning; Ben led worship. Bro Dan spoke on how obedience and faith go hand in hand; you cannot have one without the other.  He gave several great examples, but my favorite was the example of the centurion with the sick daughter.  

We had a sweet sharing meeting last night with Rose, Tommy, and Gri as speakers.  The theme I saw in the sharing was praise and thankfulness to the Lord and appreciation for each other.  Gri led worship; I loved that. She does not get up too often any more so it's always a treat to have someone different.

I haven't heard from the Trotters in awhile; I assume Bro Andy is diligently taking his chemo.  Bro George is going to and from the hospital for his chemo treatments this week.   Christine Jepsen, Rich's sister,  is done with her chemo for now; her platelets are low at present so that is a matter for concern.  I haven't heard from Rachael Williamson concerning Shane, their little boy who has a rare form of melanoma - last I knew he was recovering from his chemo and radiation treatments.  Part of his side affects were bad sun burns, chapped lips, and sores in his mouth.  Samuel Wenger was recently diagnosed with some sort of blood disease.  The Drs feel it is treatable; they are presently figuring out a treatment plan.

Jarred and Seth F are diligently applying themselves to building and installing the tabernacle bathrooms.  After three years, we might actually be getting somewhere.  Merlin had to re-route the tab water heating system since it ran on the floor where we were putting the door to the new bathrooms. It's pretty exciting.  

Olivia (and Wendy sometimes) has been doing an impressive job with Sis Millie's physical therapy.  She is improving and gaining strength.  Olivia, mostly, goes to the Basalygas twice a day - in the morning they do arm and hand therapy.  In the afternoon, it is the leg and foot's turn for therapy.  Wendy makes sure all their day to day things are taken care of and fills in whenever Olivia needs to be gone (she's our Basalyga coordinator).  Everyone pitches in.

Pat & Gri had a wonderful time with their grandies and lovely parents. The cabin was full and busy but the girls behaved themselves admirably and were sociable with everybody who approached them. Such sweet things! Talking up a storm and stealing the show at every turn. They stayed for 8 days and then had to leave since they had medicals in Palmer. PatLou filled his time being a very good daddy and also working with his uncle Ben Mehaffey at Alaska Blacksmithing to produce a very nice ornate metalwork lamp stand which will look very nice in their new home that they have recently purchased in Palmer, Alaska. 

It will look something like this when finished:

But right now it looks like this:

PL also did some felling of trees for those who needed that done around their cabins. Spent some quality time with his Grams Floan. He even squeezed in a Snowshoeing trek up the mountain with his uncle. We miss them already! PatL is soon to start working for a French Canadian Oil Servicing Company as a slick liner. He will no longer do firefighting. I am sure he will sorely miss firefighting and the friends he's made down trough the years, however this company offers much better benefits coverage, which is a big consideration when one has a small family to consider. He will work two weeks on and 2 off which will be great since he can spend more time with his girls. GOD SPEED PAT! 

Here is a link to the company, a giant conglomerate multinational organization.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlumberger

http://www.slb.com/services/well_intervention/slickline.aspx

Pat Sr. left for a week of piano work up in Barrow.

And now a few thoughts on the season from The Most Important Christmas Choice by Tracie Miles

<<

Tis' the season to be merry... and stressed. Although it should be a season of peace, this month can often make us feel more tangled up inside than a messy string of Christmas lights.

Some people dread the hustle, bustle, and emotional rustle this time of year brings, knowing that irritability, loneliness, or depression will threaten. While there are others who may love the Christmas season, but worry, busyness, family conflicts, and unmet expectations take their toll.

In either case, we have a decision. We can choose to get bogged down with stress or we can choose to bow down in worship.

Scripture gives us a beautiful picture of praise in Luke 2:13-14. When Jesus was born, an angel of the Lord appeared to the shepherds sharing the good news. Then many other angels joined together and praised God.

"Suddenly, the angel was joined by a vast host of others—the armies of heaven—praising God and saying, 'Glory to God in highest heaven, and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.'" (NLT)

Keeping Christ in Christmas is more than just a cliché. It is an intentional act of worship. It requires a heart of adoration, much like the angels had. When Jesus is the focus of our holiday, we're centered on His love, peace, and joy. The holidays can bring a flurry of heightened emotions and can often result in an unhealthy level of stress which can prevent us from engaging in worship and praising the One we are supposed to be celebrating.

There will be lots of choices to be made during the month of December. The most important choice we can make is to worship and sing praises to our Lord. For His gift. For His love. For His peace. And when our hearts are at peace, our holidays can be too.

Have a great rest of the week.