A Most Interesting Story

"The most interesting story I ever heard was told me by a man more than eighty years of age. We were sitting together on a projecting rock of a mountainside in Arkansas. Here is the story:" - B.J.

I was down in this country during the Civil War. Across on the other side yonder there were hundreds of tents where our soldiers were encamped. Measles broke out and many of the brave lads died. The epidemic got so bad we stretched some tents farther down the valley and moved all the measles patients into these tents. This, of course, was done to protect as far as possible the health of the well soldiers. I was Wardmaster in charge of the tents where the measles patients were located.

One night while I was on the ward I passed a bunk where there was a very sick soldier lad not more than seventeen years of age. The boy looked at me with a pathetic expression and said:

"Wardmaster, I believe I am going to die. I am not a Christian. My mother isn't a Christian. My father isn't a Christian. I never had any Christian training. I never did attend church. I did go with a friend to Sunday school just once. A woman taught the Sunday school class. She seemed to be such a good woman. She read us something out of the Bible about a man- I think his name was Nicodemus. Anyway it was about a man who went to see Jesus one night. Jesus told this man he must be born again. The teacher said all people must be born again in order to go to heaven when they die. I have never been born again, and I don't want to die like this. Won't you please get the chaplain so he can tell me how to be born again?"

The old man hesitated for a little. "You know, in those days I was an agnostic- at least, that is what I called myself. As a matter of fact, I wasn't anything but an old sinner.

So I told the boy, "You don't need a chaplain. Just be quiet now. Don't worry, you'll be all right." I went around the ward and in about an hour I came back to the boy's bed. He looked at me out of such sad staring eyes as he said, "Wardmaster, if you won't get me the chaplain, please get me the doctor. I am choking to death." "All right, my son, I'll get the doctor," I said. I found the doctor. He came and mopped out the throat of the lad so he could breathe a little easier. I knew the boy was going to die. I had seen many other cases just like his. The boy was so sweet he literally climbed into my heart. He thanked me for my kindness. He thanked the doctor for being so good to him. The doctor and I went away from his bed.

In about an hour I came back expecting to find the boy dead but he was still struggling. As the light began to fade from his eyes he looked up and said, "There is no use, Wardmaster. I have got to die, and I haven't been born again. Whether you believe in it or not won't you find the chaplain and let him tell me how to be born again?" I looked at him for a moment and thought about how helpless he was in the grip of death. So I said, "All right, my son, I will get the chaplain."

I walked away a few paces, turned and went back to the boy's bedside. I said, "My boy, I am not going to get you the chaplain. I am going to tell you what to do myself. Now, understand, I am an agnostic. I don't know whether there is any God. I don't know whether there is any heaven. I don't know whether there is any hell. I don't know anything. Yes, I do. I know one thing. I know my mother was a good woman. I know that if there is a God my mother knew Him. If there is a heaven I know she is there. So I will tell you what my mother told me. You can try it and see if it works. Now, I am going to teach you a verse of Scripture. The verse is John 3:16."

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

My mother said that I cannot save myself, but if I will believe in Jesus, He will save me. I asked the boy to say the verse with me. I started and he followed with a weak and trembling voice, "For God so loved the world," "For God so loved the world," "He gave his only begotten Son," "He gave his only begotten Son," "that whosoever believeth in Him," "should not perish," "should not perish," "but have everlasting life," "but have everlasting life."

"Now, my boy, my mother said if a person will trust Jesus he will not perish but have everlasting life." I referred the lad to another verse my mother taught me, but he closed his eyes, stretched his hands across his breast and in a whisper he quoted slowly, repeating some of the words several times: "For God so loved the world...He gave His only begotten Son...that whosoever, whosoever, whosoever believeth, believeth in Him, believeth in Him."

Then he stopped and said in a clear voice, "Praise God, it works. I believe in Him! I shall not perish! I have everlasting life! I have been born again. Wardmaster, your mother was right. Why don't you try it? Do what your mother said. It works, Wardmaster. This thing works! Wardmaster, before I go I want to ask you to do something for me. Take a kiss to my mother and tell her what you told me, and tell her that her dying son said, 'It works.'" I leaned over and kissed him and then as he drew his last breath, he said, "It works."

The old man, wiping tears out of his eyes and tears out of the wrinkles of his face, said, "The lad was right. It does work. Whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but has now everlasting life. It works. I know it works!"

I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
Romans 1:16

BTP #2224

Only a Kiss

August 6th, 2008

Dearest little Son of mine,

I want to write this little note so I can capture more perfectly a memory from today that you gave to me. But the main reason is so you'll know, when you get bigger, how much you mean to me.

Today I was tired. I had lots of work to do, and you kept getting into trouble which caused extra interruptions to me. As the day wore on, I got grumpier and grumpier without even needing a cause. I didn't praise, or encourage you when you were being good, but I did notice even if I was busy with the trouble your sisters were causing.

You bit your older sister today and you broke pieces off of my Jade plant that I so jealously guard. You climbed over the stair gate (and back) to get one of your trucks after I told you not to. You picked dandelion leaves and dropped them in the kiddie pool immediately after I told you not to do just that and you even spit your last bite of breakfast all over your lap in the hope of not eating it. And that was just your contribution to the chaos of today.

But you also did things that I appreciated - even though I didn't tell you then. You picked up some garbage on the floor of the kitchen and put it in the garbage can without being asked. You ate your dinner with enthusiasm and asked for more which you ate before Daddy got home to take us to meeting. You went to sleep for your nap right away - I didn't even have to come in once to remind you to go to sleep. You took a really nice long nap, and gave up your soother right away once you woke up - cheerfully. You rode very quietly in the car on the way to meeting without shouting out the presence of every BIG TRUCK we came within sight of. You asked nicely for juice when you got up from your nap, and you earnestly looked for your sippy cup when it was supper time. You even rode home from meeting silently while I simmered away in the front seat just waiting to pounce on the first disobedient kid.

The thing that meant the most to me today was what you did when I got you ready for bed tonight. I dragged you away from your pile of toy cars on the couch and marched you off to the nursery, but you didn't go kicking and whining in protest - I noticed that later actually. Then I changed your diaper, and put your pajama pants on you. When I sat you up to take your shirt off, you leaned in and gave me a hug. At first I thought you were just stalling - trying to put off your bedtime by a few extra minutes, but then you sat back again and put your hands on each side of my neck and gave me a great big kiss on my cheek. You didn't know it, but I almost started to cry right then. That one little kiss changed my whole day around. I thanked you and gave you a hug, and you hugged me back. Then I took your play shirt off and put your pajama shirt on. Once that was done, you gave me another kiss. And another.. and another. Finally ending up kissing me right on the lips.

You didn't say anything the entire time I got you ready for bed, but I think you knew you'd made me feel better because you had that rare, proud little smile on that is so special and that I love so much to see. So, I just want to say thank you dear son of mine. You loved me even when I probably deserved it the least, and in expressing that love, you reminded me of how much I let slip by me unnoticed - or at least unmentioned - at times. I love you so much and I forget so often that you are only just two years old. Thank you for being such a sweet loving little boy so deep down inside.

So, I'm writing this to you now, to tell you when you can understand how special you are to me. And you'll always be precious to me - You always have been, and each day that passes I love you more.

Love always,
~ Mama

The Beach ~ Summer Vacation - Day 3

We took our time waking up and re-packing Monday morning, and it was nearly 11:30 by the time we finally left Phi's house. Of course, I never did get a picture of Phi's family, or his house or even the general area - definitely something I need to work on!

Anyway, once we got on our way, we stopped for lunch at a Sizzler restaurant. They have an awesome salad bar and the salad bar isn't just greens either! I think the best part about lunch that day was it cost us $2.00 to feed three kids. Someday restaurants will realize that a two or three year old can sometimes eat more than an average adult... but I'm not about to point that out anytime in the near future! After lunch we hit the road again, stopping only to fill up with gas when we saw a good price.

We got to Lincoln City, Oregon around 3pm, and the kids were beside themselves with excitement. As soon as we got our room keys, and found our room all three of the kids gazed in awe at the ocean. We had our very own balcony overlooking the beach and it was wonderful to be able to leave the sliding door open a little at night just to hear the crashing waves and enjoy the freshest sea breezes. But I'm getting lost on tangents here and that will only end up in a terribly long-winded post, so back to the beach...

While Sir and I took turns unloading the car, the kids stayed on the balcony and stared at everything in sight. They tried hanging various limbs off the balcony and at one point PC lost his soother. At least it only fell the three stories down to the grassy area instead of even further to the beach below. After quite a fuss from the kids, we figured out what the problem was and Sir made the extra trip to retrieve the fallen pacifier.

When we finally got the car unloaded, Sir ran out to get some milk and other basic grocery items and while he was gone the kids and I checked out the beach. It was really windy that day and PC wasn't too sure about walking out in the sand and wind while monstrous waves crashed only yards away. Dolly, on the other hand wanted to try everything out. Were the waves wet? Hmm.. let's see.. Can you run on the sand? Ok, let's try... What happens if I chase the seagulls?... and so on. Between the two of them going in opposite directions (Dolly heading out to sea and PC trying to figure out the fastest way back to where we came from) and me juggling Emma and the camera as I tried to walk on the sand without getting sand in my runners, I didn't get any pictures taken on that excursion.

I did get some pictures of the beach from our balcony once we got back to the hotel, and that evening I even managed to get a few shots of the sunset. You don't realize how difficult it can be to take pictures until you have three kids needing your attention at the exact moment the most stunning sunset is unfolding. Oh well, I may not have captured the most stunning moments of the sunsets while we were there, but at least I got something!

After dinner, and once the kids were finally settled in bed, Sir and I set up the folding chairs on the balcony and relaxed until it got too cold to stay outside.

Well, I was going to lump all three days at the beach into this post, but that was before I realized how long it would end up being, so I'll stop here at the end of our first day at the beach and leave you to imaging the sounds of crashing waves and the scent of sea breezes lazily wafting through the white gauzy curtains.

And hopefully I'll continue my narrative of our vacation in the next day or two instead of letting another week or two slip by un-posted. Summertime is such a busy time, but how I love the summer!

Phi's House ~ Summer Vacation - Days 1 and 2

Saturday, June 21st marked the beginning of our first family vacation. After staying up into the wee hours of the night packing, we managed to drag ourselves out of bed Saturday morning early enough to feed the kids breakfast and finish collecting the last minute items for our trip. So, instead of being on the road by 9... we were finally on our way at 11:30.

The first adventure was the hour+ border line up. We even dashed through the Duty Free store to save a bit of time, but it was already almost 1pm by the time we actually made it into the US. Then upon seeing the gas prices in Blaine, we opted to only buy enough gas to make it a bit further south where we'd fill up a bit more economically. We grabbed some lunch at Jack in the Box around 1:30, and then continued on to Burlington to fill the gas tank for the first part of our vacation.

We made it to Phi's house in Gresham, Oregon around 6:15. Emma and PC managed to take some sort of a nap on the way down and that was a help. Sjo made a wonderful dinner of cornbread muffins, chips and a Mexican casserole that PC absolutely loved. He looked over at me after his first bite or two and said, "Mama, em NUM!". It was kind of cute to see him so delightedly surprised, and it was a nice change from making him swallow at least three bites of a meal for once. He even had seconds!

Before and after supper, the kids discovered the playhouse out in the yard. While the boys happily piled handfuls of gravel on the deck, Uncle E kept Emma busy dodging his broom. She wanted to investigate the drop off at the corner of the deck to see how the gravel was doing in case it needed company.

Sunday morning we went to meeting with Phi and his family. Dolly was too shy to say her verse even though she actually knew it well for once. She met another little girl that shared her first name, and they both thought that was great. Dolly was the center of attention since she was the newcomer, and she loved every minute of it. It was fun to see her so included by the other little girls around her age. We went back to Phi's house for lunch and had another delicious meal that even included a jello dish that the kids loved. Then there was a Strawberry pie for desert complete with ice cream! I think by that time, our kids wanted to stay at Phi's house forever. After lunch Phi showed Emma how the dishwasher worked and then it was nap time where everyone got to get a very relaxing nap.

After Gospel, I got a picture of Dolly and H-Rose and then I tried to take a picture of Em and Emma (another little girl that shared the first name of a daughter of mine), but Emma was tired and fussy and wanted Mommy to hold her... not take a picture of her.

H-Rose (almost 5) and Dolly(almost 3½)

Emma (9mo exactly) and Em (just turned 2)

Then I got a picture of three 3 year-olds, one of which was born the very same day that Dolly was. She's the one next to Dolly and is Em's big sister.

Dolly and Damaris ~ they share a birthday, and both have a sister named 'Em'.

Then we went back to Phi's house and had a light supper before heading to bed so we could continue our vacation in the morning!

Summer Vacation - 2008

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Well, we're back at home (as of 11:30 Tuesday night). We were gone for 11 days, 10 nights and traveled somewhere around 1,100 miles. I'll be posting about the trip and I'm sure I should be able to come up with some good pictures since we only took 470 of them while we were gone!

Anyway, I need to go switch the laundry again and I still have kids to feed and unpacking to finish, but at least you know I didn't drop off the end of the earth or something like that.

June 12th ~ It's a BOY!

Caelan Asher

I know I haven't posted in what seems like forever, but life here has been more than a whirlwind recently.

Anyway, I have news! Tina had her baby this morning at 5:24 after just a little more than two hours of labour. He weighed in at 8lbs, 15oz and was 22 inches long. They named him Caelan Asher.

I think he's a beautiful baby, but I'm entitled to think that since I'm his doting aunt. You can form your own opinions. I'll post more pictures when I get them.

Tired Mama and her boys.


Healthy Baby

Congratulations Boots & Tina!