Happy (Halloween) Reformation Day!!!

   Reformation Sunday services? Reformation celebrations? What is the Reformation that we hear so much about...especially in “reformed” churches? The Reformation was the end result of a series of events whose purpose was to reform the medieval Roman Catholic Church from within, initially. It
finally became a movement of separation from this same church. The doctrine of justification by faith alone was recovered by the reformers, and the Bible, rather than the Bible and tradition, was given its
rightful place of authority in the life of the believer. The Bible was made available in the language of the common person, and the Roman Catholic Church lost its stronghold of interpretation of the Scriptures for the masses.
 Many events were working together to set the stage for the Reformation, all under the sovereign authority of God. The Renaissance brought a rebirth of learning and the emergence of classical
humanism, or the desire to look to the past for instruction, including an interest in the original languages of the Scriptures. Political, economic and social changes were giving rise to a new group of people, the middle class. As the middle class became more educated and read the Bible in the common tongue, discrepancies became blatantly obvious between what the Roman Catholic Church taught and what
the Scriptures said. The result was a favorable climate to the ideas promoted by these “reformers.”
 There are many important places and names of “reformers” to remember concerning the Reformation. The Waldenses in France, John Wycliffe in England, John Hus in Bohemia, Jerome Savonarola in Italy, Erasmus in the Netherlands — these were some of the forerunners who set the stage for the pivotal Reformation events in Germany. Other famous men who followed the Reformation in Germany included Ulrich Zwingli in Switzerland, John Calvin in Geneva, John Knox in Scotland and Thomas Cranmer in England.

 But, the spark that really set the Reformation movement ablaze was on October 31, 1517, when a young Augustinian monk, Martin Luther, posted his now famous 95 theses/arguments on the church door of the Wittenberg (Germany) Castle. The timing and place of Luther’s posting is significant. The castle church held one of the largest collections of supposed relics outside of Rome (pieces of bones fromsaints, locks of hairs from martyrs, a piece of the true cross, a twig from Moses’ burning bush, bread from the Last Supper, a veil sprinkled with the blood of Christ - all venerated and held in holy awe). The relics were kept in special reliquaries, ornamented with gold, silver and precious stones. They were specially exhibited on All Saints (Hallows) Day, November 1. The church taught that paying a special fee and viewing the relics would shorten a soul’s stay in purgatory (...this was one teaching Luther challenged in his 95 theses).
 Luther promoted the free, gratuitous remission of sin, not by relics, papal pardons or indulgences, but by faith in Jesus Christ.


 The next day, November 1, All Saints Day, the multitudes flocked to the church, read Luther’s charges, and the Reformation was born in earnest.

 We continue the Reformation, and continue in the Reformed faith, as we ever seek to “reform” our beliefs and lives by the Word of God.

 ~Pastor Eric Mullinax, Covenant PCA, Chattanooga, TN

Florida

Morning walk

  We are on the road visiting friends and family in Lakeland, Brandon, and Bradenton, Florida.  We are blessed to be able to share with so many our calling to work with the Blackfoot people in Lethbridge alongside the Amazing Grace Community Church.

  As we travel, I enjoy so much seeing the beauty of the state that we grew up in - just want to share some of that with you this morning.

Hibiscus

Lake Morton - with swans!

Palm fronds - cleaned up many of these while we were growing up!

Bromiliads

Can't say I have ever seen this type of cactus before - information would be appreciated!

The peacefulness of moss hanging from oak trees.
I remember as a child when my parents first moved to Florida when I was 6 years old.
Seeing the moss on the trees as we traveled I-75 heading down to Valrico, Florida "Valley of Gold".
 The moss in the trees always reminds me of our Florida home.


What memories of your childhood home come to you when and if you return for visits?
And what about your forever home?  What do you envision it to be like?



20 But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,21 who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.
(Philippians 3:20 ESV)

Fall Festivals and Thanksgiving - Showing them Jesus

        Yes, it's that time of year - fall festivals, hay   rides, pumpkin patches and food.

         As you enjoy them in your town enjoy these photos of the Fall Festival and Thanksgiving - Canada style - that was already celebrated in Lethbridge, Alberta by the folks at Amazing Grace Community Church and Amazing Kids families.

   

                Reaching out to the community and having a fun time with neighbors and friends - and all the tickets were .10 cents each!! There was face painting, hot dogs, cotton candy, games and fellowship for all!

  A Community Thanksgiving Feast was held on Saturday, October 11th.  Lots of noise, lots of welcomes, lots of conversations. After a thanksgiving prayer, a lot of good food was consumed. Christians participated in community with 30 or so people who had seldom or never been in a church, people who were very grateful for the extra plates of leftovers that they were able to take home.

The Word - JESUS - became flesh and moved into the neighborhood - serving and celebrating with neighbors, family and friends.

Jesus is “the true light that gives light to everyone . . .” (John 1:9 ). 

“Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 

In him was life, and that life was the light of all people. 

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:3–5 ).

Timeline Tuesday!! Selling another Home (subtitle: Where is My Home?)

(Timeline Tuesday – some of the back-story leading up to our moving back into missions)

Summer 2013 - As we prepared for our next adventure of moving into missions we put up another FOR SALE sign on our home and small farm in Tennessee. Over the years we have bought and sold several homes. Here is just a quick overview for those who are new to our family.

 We purchased our first home in 1989 – Machesney Park, Illinois.  We lived there for 7 years as our children moved through elementary school and did lots of remodeling and upgrades. 

In 1996 (the year the pipes froze in some apartments we owned in Illinois) we moved back “home” to Florida and purchased a home in Lakeland.  We lived there and upgraded it also.

*disclaimer: some of these photos are scanned photos of non-digital film pictures

In 2001 we had the opportunity to live in a fly-in community (Howard's 1st through 5th careers being in aviation) – where there is an airfield adjacent to many of the homes and everyone had an aircraft hangar bigger than their house. We actually built this home ourselves - and while we were building we lived for about 5 months in a trailer - 5 people and 2 cats in a 13 x 65 single-wide that leaked when it rained. 

 It was an experience. 

We lived in the Southwind neighborhood for 3 years.  Becky graduated from High School while we were there, and as the college years began we realized the need for less mortgage and more college cash.

We sold that home in 2003 and moved to Whispering Pines – my favorite street name – and lived there for 2 years – Mike graduated from High-school and Becky got married. We remodeled of course and built a large detached garage.

We then had an opportunity to downsize and we moved back into the Southwind fly-in community where we had purchased an investment lot and built our “hangar-home”.

While living in the hangar-home everyone graduated: Becky from college, Mike from trade school, and Julie from High school.  In 2006 we went on a 25^th anniversary vacation and stayed at our good friend’s cabin in eastern Tennessee – it was beautiful – and we were ready for a change.  An opportunity came for us to purchase some land in the area and Howard and Mike took a couple of trips to look at different acreages.  We purchased our Athens, Tennessee 18 acres in 2007 and Howard built us our “barn home”. 

While in Tennessee, Howard went back to school for his Master’s Degree in Mental Health Counseling -  he had been discussing going back to school for over a decade – at Lee University. He graduated in 2011 and began working at a crisis stabilization hospital. Mike gets married to his beautiful wife at the barn.

  

Which brings us to the summer of 2013, getting ready to go into missions again, and putting another home up for sale. 

The home sold in a month which we had not thought about so we moved into an apartment - as we discussed this move later, we realized that in our married life we had never lived in an apartment complex.  It was an interesting 4 months.  

We only lived there for a short while. The process of getting to the mission field takes longer than we had anticipated and we realized it was more expensive to live in an apartment than to just purchase another small home. We decided to move to Chattanooga and be closer to our children for the year or so that it would take us to raise our support. That takes us to our little bungalow on Julian Drive.  We are, of course, fixing it up and Julie will live in it when we head to Lethbridge.

What will our home in Lethbridge look like?  

Stay tuned...

And while you are waiting...
Where is our home truly at?

                                 ...not on this earth!

Hebrews 13: 14 - For here we do not have an enduring city but we are looking for the city that is to come.

What comfort in knowing that no matter where I may hang my hat here on earth - I have a forever hat-rack in heaven!

Canadian Thanksgiving - more to learn! (And twice the Turkey!!)

Well, The Christmas decorations are in the stores 

                  before Halloween, 

                       before Thanksgiving,  

                           and EVEN before Canadian Thanksgiving 

which is celebrated on the 2nd Monday in October.  

Here are a few facts that we researched for our own knowledge and that we wanted to share with you!

There are three traditions behind Canadian Thanksgiving Day.

1. Long ago, before the first Europeans arrived in North America, the farmers in Europe held celebrations at harvest time. To give thanks for their good fortune and the abundance of food, the farm workers filled a curved goat's horn with fruit and grain. This symbol was called a cornucopia or horn of plenty. When they came to Canada they brought this tradition with them.
2. In the year 1578, the English navigator Martin Frobisher held a formal ceremony, in what is now called Newfoundland, to give thanks for surviving the long journey. He was later knighted and had an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean in northern Canada named after him - Frobisher Bay. Other settlers arrived and continued these ceremonies.
3. The third came in the year 1621, in what is now the United States, when the Pilgrims celebrated their harvest in the New World. The Pilgrims were English colonists who had founded a permanent European settlement at Plymouth Massachusetts. By the 1750's, this joyous celebration was brought to Nova Scotia by American settlers from the south.
   
   At the same time, French settlers, having crossed the ocean and arrived in Canada with explorer Samuel de Champlain, also held huge feasts of thanks. They even formed "The Order of Good Cheer" and gladly shared their food with their Indian neighbours.
   
   After the Seven Year's War ended in 1763, the citizens of Halifax held a special day of Thanksgiving.
   
   The Americans who remained faithful to the government in England were known as Loyalists. At the time of the American revolution, they moved to Canada and spread the Thanksgiving celebration to other parts of the country. many of the new English settlers from Great Britain were also used to having a harvest celebration in their churches every autumn.
   
   Eventually in 1879, Parliament declared November 6th a day of Thanksgiving and a national holiday. Over the years many dates were used for Thanksgiving, the most popular was the 3rd Monday in October. After World War I, both Armistice Day and Thanksgiving were celebrated on the Monday of the week in which November 11th occurred. Ten years later, in 1931, the two days became separate holidays and Armistice Day was renamed Remembrance Day. Finally, on January 31st, 1957, Parliament proclaimed....
   
   

   "A Day of General Thanksgiving to Almighty God for the bountiful harvest with which Canada has been blessed... to be observed on the second Monday in October."

   

Did You Know?

Americans did not invent Thanksgiving. It began in Canada. Frobisher's celebration in 1578 was 43 years before the pilgrims gave thanks in 1621 for the bounty that ended a year of hardships and death. Abraham Lincoln established the date for the US as the last Thursday in November. In 1941, US Congress set the National Holiday as the fourth Thursday in November.

Frobisher and early colonists, giving thanks for safe passage, as well as pilgrim celebrations in the US that began the traditions of turkeys, pumpkin pies, and the gathering of family and friends.

    -     -     -     -     -     -     -     -

  So now you know and we know - and we will get to eat TURKEY twice in the fall!!!!!

My Turkey story: (published in our local paper in 2001 - event took place in 1981)

I remember it well...the half-cooked turkey...but I digress. Let me go back to the beginning.
 I was a tomboy and hated being in the kitchen. My mother despaired of me ever learning to cook when I got married. Well, I showed her, almost. My college roommate's mother gave me a Pillsbury cookbook when I got married and I read it like a Bible. On our first Thanksgiving, I turned to the page on cooking a turkey, bought a meat thermometer, prepared the stuffing and followed the directions exactly - with one problem. It said to cook the turkey to an inside temperature of 180 degrees. So, I set the oven to 180.  Things still smelled like everything was OK, but when the two other newlywed couples arrived for dinner and we went to take the turkey out - half cooked, frozen in the middle. The day was only saved by the microwave oven!  It was many years before I told my mother (she lived 1,000 miles away at the time), but now we can laugh about it. 

DID YOU READ THIS POST?  If you did, then answer this: What American Holiday always coincides with Canadian Thanksgiving Day? Leave your comment!

Craft project for our followers with kids: