Goodbye 2013

Things have been insane the last four months so I am just getting around to posting. Plus, the Internet is iffy and will not always let us post pics. I don’t think I can blog without pics.   :)

I traveled to the USA from May to August 2013 to visit my family.  (See previous blog entries.)    I returned to the bush in August ……greeting the Tidwells in passing at the Lusaka Airport.  :(   My visit in the states was great. I ate a LOT of ice cream and enjoyed seeing my family and friends, but I was glad to be back to work.

We planted tomatoes, cabbage, sweet corn, peppers, egg plant and sugar loaf right after I returned. They were growing nicely when the pigs came. They broke through the garden fence and ate most of the cabbage and all of the corn. We had a fair harvest of tomatoes and a lot of  bell peppers and egg plant. I introduced the Zambians to southern chow-chow, but I don’t think they were impressed.


The pens for the animals were falling down so we spent a lot of time trying to repair them and built a shelter/prison for Sir Billy. He is a little on the ornery side.  As we were working on the pens my daily Bible study was in Nehemiah. I started thinking about rebuilding the walls in our lives. In the bible, each person was responsible for the part of the wall by his own house. The wall didn’t belong to the people per say but it did protect them.  If we follow this example we will be ever watchful at our part of the wall (i.e., our families, church, yes even work) We do not have ownership of the wall, but it does protect us. What part of the wall by your house needs repair? Repair is constant. Put it up today and it will be down tomorrow. So what do we do? Quit and let it crumble because we are too busy? Nope…keep rebuilding in the power of Jesus.

God's timing is so perfect. After the study of Nehemiah the next lessons were on Job. It was during this time Precious became ill. The coming months would prove to be very difficult. I marveled at the soft, warm blanket of peace, strength and comfort God covered us with daily. The days were filled with plenty of work, which was a welcome distraction. The nights were spent praying and just lying close to the heart of Jesus. I read about Job being a righteous man to the point God told Satan, “Check out my man Job.”(Paraphrased a bit ;) I read about Job taking both good and bad from the hand of God equally. I read about Job’s friends asking him about the sin in his life and blaming him for his misfortune. I continued reading and saw Job finally begin to question God. As he sat in a pile of ashes scraping his boil laden skin, he had enough.  Job 30:20-22  "I cry out to you oh God but you do not answer; I stand up but you merely look at me. You turn on me ruthlessly; with the might of your hand you attack me. You snatch me up and drive me before the wind; you toss me about in the storm.” Then I entered my favorite part of the book.  Did I tell you my favorite book in the Bible is Job? Well, it is. Strange I know. These verses have been underlined in my Bible for a long time and I cannot read them without weeping. Kind of puts everything in perspective. Let's read it together. 

 

Chapter 38

 

¹ Then the Lord spoke to Job out of the storm. He said: ² “Who is this that obscures my plans with words without knowledge?  ³ Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me. ⁴ “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?   Tell me, if you understand. ⁵ Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!  Who stretched a measuring line across it? ⁶ On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone—⁷ while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy? ⁸ “Who shut up the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb, ⁹ when I made the clouds its garment and wrapped it in thick darkness, ¹⁰ when I fixed limits for it and set its doors and bars in place, ¹¹ when I said, ‘This far you may come and no farther; and wrapped it in thick darkness, ¹⁰ when I fixed limits for it and set its doors and bars in place, ¹¹ when I said, ‘This far you may come and no farther; here is where your proud waves halt’? ¹² “Have you ever given orders to the morning, or shown the dawn its place, ¹³ that it might take the earth by the edges and shake the wicked out of it?
¹⁴ The earth takes shape like clay under a seal; its features stand out like those of a garment.
¹⁵ The wicked are denied their light, and their upraised arm is broken. ¹⁶ “Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea or walked in the recesses of the deep? ¹⁷ Have the gates of death been shown to you? Have you seen the gates of the deepest darkness? ¹⁸ Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth? Tell me, if you know all this.”

God was basically asking Job who he thought he was anyway. In chapter 42 Job repents and God restores everything that was taken, times two.



So what is the point? A note in my bible reads  "The place God wants me is humble and totally dependent on him."  The week before Christmas I read a post on FB that said sometimes God will give us more than we can handle so we will run to him.


Hey! I posted a blog without pics.


P/S  Time to confess. I have never read through the entire bible so decided to start a chronological bible reading program. Guess where we started?  Yep. Job.     Gotta  *smile*



 

 

 

Father's Day

The entire Cecil Walters family was together for Father's Day 2013. We worshiped together at Fort Phantom Baptist Church then had a wonderful lunch of home made enchiladas and butter finger ice cream for dessert. yum !




Randy (brother),  me, Jackie and Dad.



Cass (nephew), Randy, Carcin (niece) Jackie and Dad


 

Dad cracking up after reading his card.

 

Jackie and I picked the card out because it had an "out doorsey" theme.  After opening it you can hear crickets, what we thought were bullfrogs and finally a guy snoring.

 

Look closely at the bear. Yep........he is holding his nose. There were no bullfrogs. ;)  THAT was why Dad was laughing so hard. 

 

HAPPY FATHERS DAY DAD!!!!

 

 

DAD



 

Jackie and I are being good and limiting ourselves to 1 diet coke per day.  :)
 

My Daddy

Dad's 2090

Ford 8N

4th days continued

Lunch after speaking at First Church Arlington

Rare photo of Ted Gooch

Granny B and Mike Stumbaugh
 



 

The "wild bunch." J, BB and Lindie Light Bulbs. ;)

 

 

         Lunch after speaking at First Baptist Alvarado                     



Joanna Taylor.
This chickies name is written in the back of my old bible.


 




One of my "besties" Laura Taylor


 

I spent a week in Austin visiting ole work buddies and attending training so I can maintain my certification.




Dan and Claire. We have been.friends for how many years?




 

Claire (my old boss) and Rebecca (my replacement)

 

My secret husband is afraid he is going to touch me. ;)







On the way back to Arlington from Austin I received a call that my adopted "Mom" had been rushed to the hospital then another letting me know she had died. Claire went out of her way to drop me off in Hico so my sis could come get me. I have GREAT friends!  Thanks Claire!! I spent the next week helping Pegs grand children prepare for the funeral.

Playing ball at the park





Monkey!

Lake Proctor

 

 

 

 



 

We are all tired! Headed to DQ for a healthy supper of Blizzards. I am having chocolate truffle.  C ya soon!



4th days

The next few days were spent surprising my family! My sisters in Glen Rose TX.



Shonda
 



 Cindy and Kristy

Next stop, Dublin Tx. Peggy and Cecil Rasberry adopted me many years ago and I was able to visit with Peg and her grandchildren, Grady and Amanda. I will let you figure out who is who.  hahaha

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On to Hawley to surprise my Dad and step mother. I can't believe he didn't find out I was state side but I am thankful. He would have KILLED me! ;)  

Dad is a bit camera shy so I didn't get a pic but he WAS surprised. I did get a picture of  their home.

 

 

 

 

 

 

My brother Randy came over for supper but...again...no pic. Maybe I can capture them at the family reunion.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

Day 1

I have been planning a trip home for quite some time and May 1 Wes and Laurie put me on a plane to Joburg South Africa. I had never flown by myself  and was pretty nervous. I flew from Lusaka Zambia to South Africa. (3 hours)  then to England (9 hours) then to Dallas (12 hours). The trip was long but uneventful which was a good thing. My peeps had prayed for God to send people to help me so it was very cool when they showed up. Before I even got on the plane in Lusaka an American man saw me  and made a bee line to sit next to me. I smiled and thought "here comes angel #1." He was very nice and had been in the Congo working so had very interesting stories to tell. I went straight to my gate in Joburg and very few people were there so I HAD to take a poll to see if I was in the right place. In the process I met an older couple from the US. We were having a nice visit when two more Americans heard us talking and joined us. We just had a party right there. We had a blast talking and laughing. (More angels) The older couple sat right behind me on the plane. (What a coincidence ;) I was the only only one on my row so I invited my new friend to come sit by me and we chatted for hours. I didn't have any trouble finding my gate in England so had several hours to kill. The flight to Dallas was jam packed so I got to know a very nice lady from Sweden pretty well. She didn't speak English very well but we still managed to trade stories about our families. She was headed to Wichita Falls to meet her husband. We touched down and I nearly lost it. I was on American soil for the first time in 15 months and when the guy at immigration said "welcome home" I did tear up a little. I would probably have gotten a lot more emotional but he marked my paper  with a big red A flagging me for an agriculture shake down to make sure I wasn't bringing back any unwanted African "stuff"  on my shoes. My bud Janice picked me up and we finally made it out of the airport.  I did lose it. My mind was not used to processing the images my eyes were sending it. Lanes and lanes of traffic, strange houses and soooooo many white people!Our first stop was Dairy Queen for a blizzard YUMMMMM then on to Walmart! Janice had to keep me focused on what we needed because I just wanted to look at everything. So much food! Sensory over load.

Forgotten sights, sounds and smells began to make their back to my memory over the next few days. The feel of soft carpet, rocky road ice cream and micro wave popcorn for breakfast, hot water any time of the day....or night, clean neighborhoods and current episodes of NCIS.

 

23 hours on a plane makes one a bit goofy