Merry Christmas

This is a picture from my childhood. I was actually just a baby when this picture was made. It's missionary kids who are ten-fifteen years older than me at a reception after the Christmas pageant at the boarding school.

Passing of a Queen

Queen Elizabeth has died. She visited Nigeria two years before I was born. I don’t remember the visit but have a lot of friends just a little older than me who do. They tell their memories of pomp and circumstance and waving little Nigerian flags as they watched her pass by in varuious Nigerian cities. Nigeria was a British colony until 1960. Growing up, I sometimes didn’t know who the US President was but I always knew who Queen Elizabeth was. She was my queen. When I was born, Nigeria was still a British colony. I had duel citizenship until I was 18 so for the first two years of my life, I was one of her subjects, born in one of her colonies.

Fleeting Summer

Summer is fast moving into fall. As much as I love summer, right now I wouldn't mind a little fall weather. We're having typical August temps here in Louisville and my air conditioner is not working for the fifth day in a row. Someone came out late last week, replaced a part, and seemed to have fixed it for a brief period. It works more than it did, which was not at all, but it does not keep the temperature at our desired number, even when set about ten degees lower. And the fan has started making a loud hum. The weekend came so we couln't call anyone but called today and they are coming out again tomorrow! Here's to hoping they fix it. I'm posting a picture of the beach in this post becasue that's where I wish I was on this hot August day. Some updates from the last post: my pastor passed away and our little church misses him greatly. We are serching for a new pastor, Roe vs Wade was overturned and thankfully, no one took their anger out on my church doors this time. Except for the broken AC, my life has returned to normal with school stasrting so I will be substituting in classrooms again soon, and of course writing, writing, writing. You can go to my other blog to read more about my writng.

My Little Church

Yesterday, Sunday May 8, was Mother's Day. I and my church family worshipped in our small, inner-city church. Well, it's not quite in the inner-city but close. It's on the edge of the inner city. We're a small congregation with a big heart for the people in our community. We have participated in a lot of community activities and held some outreach activities of our own like Christmas caroling in the neighborhood followed by hot chocolate and cookies in our fellowship hall. Our building is old but we replaced the carpet and repainted the walls a bright soft yellow. I love my church--building and people. While we sat in our bright building singing praises and listening to a sermon filled with great Bible teaching, someone unknown to us spray painted the letters AC AB on our front door. These letters are an acronym for a derogatory anti-police statement. On this particular Mother's Day protestors vandalized churches around the nation in response to the leaked Supreme Court report indicating the overturning of Roe vs. Wade. I do not know if the vandalism we experienced was related to that or just random. What I do know is that my sweet little church has been led by an incredible man for many years. Pastor Mark Janke is my pastor, friend, and one of my husband's best friends. Once when my husband and I were in the car on a long trip listening to oldies the '60's hit, "Dominique" came on. That song speaks about a man of God named Dominique. The refrain says, "On every road, in every place, he just talks about the Lord." As we heard those words repeated over and over my husband said, "That always makes me think of Mark." I knew he was referring to our pastor and friend. Mark is currently fighting for his life as he struggles with stage four pancreatic cancer. Our little church is struggling alongside him and his precious family ... and some insensitive person who knows nothing about our church chose this time to deface it. Revelation 1:20 calls churches lampstands. Jesus also called His church the "light of the world" in Matthew 5:14. Keep shining little churches of America! Keep shining your light though the darkness may press in on you. Keep shining!

Coming 2023!

I'm so excited to announce that Shirley Crowder and I just signed a contract to co-write another devotional book! The book will release next year from Entrusted Books, an arm of Write Integriry Press!

The Third of March

Most of my life the third day of March held no special meaning. It was no one’s birthday or anniversary that I knew of. Today, however it will never pass by again without me taking notice. My life has been a roller coaster ride filled with ups and downs. Some of the highs have been so high I could touch the clouds, higher experiences than many ever know. And likewise, some of my low experiences are the kind of lows that many can live a lifetime and never have. I’ve scampered barefoot beneath the tropical sun, felt the rains in Africa, lived through a war, lost all I knew and loved except my family when ripped out of Africa at only ten years old. I’ve lived in the beautiful West Virginia mountains and been a high school cheerleader for a state championship football team. From Africa to quintessential Americana. I’ve won a local pageant and been named a runner-up at the state level. And I’ve lost one of my dearest friends in a yet unsolved horrific double murder. And that’s just the first twenty years of my life. The roller coaster just kept going after that. In fact, one reason I write is because God has given me a life that has been filled with unusual experiences—too many to share in one book, much less one blog post. But today I will tell you a few of those experiences that the third day in March will always remind me of. Last year, March 3, 2021, had my rollercoaster life told in one day. That morning I watched the announcements of the Selah Awards, one of the Christian writing world’s most prestigious awards. As I listened, I heard my name called out in two categories! (A couple months later I went on to win one of them and place second in the other.) I was flying high on the morning of March 3, 2021! My rollercoaster had reached a peak again. It wasn’t the highest peak I had ever reached but a peak, nonetheless. Then right on que like a roller coaster would, my high plummeted to a dark low a few hours later when I got a phone call with some disheartening news. Yesterday which was again March 3, I again watched the Selah Award announcements and though I did not hear my name called, a new writer who I have mentored was named and I’m tickled pink. Then as is par for the course in my roller coaster life, in the late afternoon, my Facebook showed me memories from a few years back when I had posted about the sudden death of my youngest son's best friend. They were fifteen and had been best friends since kindergarten. The friend (the little red head in the picture) was hit by a car crossing a road. Life is indeed full of ups and downs but it's still sweet. Oh so sweet!

Redeeming Love

Last night I saw the movie, Redeeming Love. It's based on a book by the same title written by Francine Rivers. I very much enjoyed the movie. I've read the book and liked it too. In fact, the book was better because it went into the story a bit more. Still the movie was worth watching. It's losely based on the story of the prophet Hosea in the Old Testament. Hosea married a prostitute. She was untrue to him after their marriage and still he loved her. In fact, at one point she was being sold as a slave and he bought her back not to be his slave but to be his wife. This story is a depiction of what God did for His wayward people. They / we have not stayed true to Him in our hearts. We have strayed and yet he bought us back with the blood of His Son.

February is right around the corner. It's the month in which we celebrate love. Usually its the love between a man and a woman that we celebrate but the greatest love of all is what God demonstrated for His people when He sent His Son. "For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16

Harmattan

This time of year is a special time in Nigeria, the country where I grew up. It is the middle of the dry season right now, a special mini-season called Harmattan. Nigeria is a country on the west coast of Africa just beneath the Sahara Desert. Christmas and New Year in Nigeria fall on the calendar at the same time as Harmattan. The harmattan is a dry and dusty West African trade wind. It blows southwest from the Sahara Desert into the Gulf of Guinea between the end of November and the middle of March. Humidity is extremely low and the heavy amount of dust in the air can sometimes severely limit visibility and block the sun for days. It has a similar effect to that of a heavy fog. Against this backdrop, we celebrated Christmas and New Year. My father used to say that he liked the fact that Christmas came in the middle of Harmattan. In America everything would be stark, cold, and dreary this time of year, with the trees bare and the air full of winter’s chill. In the middle of this otherwise dreary time, Christians celebrate the birth of the Savior with ornamented and brightly lit Christmas trees, gifts, good food, and Christmas cheer. Likewise, in Nigeria, when the world is dry and dusty, and all the leaves and grass are a dreary brown, Christians are celebrating the joyous birth of their Savior with songs and good cheer. Growing up, I knew Harmattan to be a season of dry air and extreme dust. When I was just a baby, I had very thin, wispy, blond hair. During the Harmattan season the static electricity from the dry blowing air caused my hair to stand on end most of the time and my family fondly called me “Harriet the Harmattan cat” because my hair looked like the hair on the back of cats when they arch in fear or anger. As I got older, and my hair thickened and lay down as it should, I became accustomed to this time of year when dust accumulated on our furniture overnight and covered the trees in the outside world around me. That was so long ago now. I've put January harmmattan days behind me years ago. Now I'm faced with cold, stark, sometimes icy winter days. But January still makes me loook forard to the moths ahead. As a child I looked forward to the rainy season arriving when my worl would turn luch and green again. Today, much the same--I look forward to spring when the world aroudn me warms and turns lush and green again too. Hurry spring!