FANNY CROSBY

Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him and bless his name.                                   Psalm 100:4

In a previous blog, we have indicated that Gail goes every Tuesday to the Lenawee Medical Care Facility to visit several of the patients. One of the ladies, Margaret, is blind, but she has a real love for music having been a church pianist in Waldron for many years.  And she also played in a band. At one visit, they got to talking about Fanny Crosby who was a blind hymn writer who lived in the 1800s. They found that Fanny became blind as the result of mustard poultices being put on her eyes when she was six weeks old. She saw over 8,000 of her poems set to music and over 100,000,000 copies of her songs printed. The Christian world was given such songs as: A Shelter In The Time Of Storm, Blessed Assurance, Rescue The Perishing, and Take The World But Give Me Jesus. At the age of 37 she married a man who was also blind. They both taught in a school for blind people. A child was born to them but died while yet a baby.

It was evident at a very young age that Fanny had a unique ability to write poetry but an even better ability to overcome her blindness. To make this point, at age eight she wrote a very compelling poem: "O what a happy soul I am! Although I cannot see, I am resolved that in this world contented I will be. How many blessings I enjoy that other people don't. To weep and sign because I'm blind, I can't, and I won't."

On Saturday Gail invited Audrey Clay to come to the Lenawee Medical Care Facility and share her talent as a pianist with Margaret and other patients that Gail is familiar with. Needless to say, Audrey serenaded the group with many of Fanny Crosby's hymns to which the group joined in with heartfelt singing. Finally, Margaret asked if she might be able to play the piano, even with her blindness.
With much maneuvering, they were able to wheel her close enough to the piano so that she could chord with one hand. While playing with her one hand Audrey accompanied her with the other.
To be able to play the piano again brought much joy to Margaret. The people who attended were very delighted.

             Audrey on the piano and Margaret playing her harmonica

                               Others enjoying the music

May we be found counting our blessings no matter what our situation is. The Apostle Paul said in Philippians 4:11, "in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content."

Blessings and Encouragement,

Paul, Gail, Patsy, and Penny

OUR FLAG-WAVE THE BANNER HIGH

Our internet has been down the last three days.  Below is the blog we did on Tuesday.

Blessed is the nation whose god is the Lord.        Psalm 33:12a

 This week a small town in South Dakota has made the national news.  The school board for the community school has ruled unanimously not to have the pledge of allegiance to the America flag not be said at the beginning of the day in the high school.  Apparently they feel that there isn’t enough time in the school day to say the pledge.  It is without question that this exercise takes less than 15 seconds.  In fact one veteran they interviewed said it only takes ten seconds.  The school board stated that they do allow the elementary and junior high students to say the pledge in the morning, but the high school just doesn’t have time in its schedule.

 The pledge of allegiance contains two very important words that our children need to say as part of their daily routine and that is “under God”.  As citizens of the United States, we should want God’s blessing on our nation and include Him in our pledge.  When we start cutting out important things such as the pledge, we begin a slippery slope for other important and meaningful exercises to be left out of the daily activities of the school.

 

                   

                 Raising the United States flag on Iwo Jima during WWII

2 Chronicles 7:14 says, “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”  Our nation is in need of healing, and the above situation is an example of it.  God have given us a recipe for the healing of our land.  When we pledge to the flag it is a gentle reminder that we are “one nation, under God”.  We have soldiers dying for the freedoms that we have in the United States, but if we don’t, as a nation, return to God we will be quickly losing our freedom.  Please join us in praying for our nation.

 
Blessings and Encouragement,

 

Paul, Gail, Patsy and Penny

 

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                

BILLY GRAHAM-A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS

Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified:  a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.  For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength.
                                                                                                                I Corinthians 1:22-25

On November 7th Billy Graham celebrated his 95th birthday which included a television special where he once again preached Christ crucified.  Even though it came on much after our normal bed time, we stayed up to watch the entire telecast which included Billy Graham preaching and the testimonies of a rapper and a singer.  The entire presentation was very moving as the cross was preached and the two testimonies included how the cross changed their lives. 

Billy Graham Crusades have been held all around the world from the late forties until Billy Graham's health would not allow him to preach and he retired to his home in North Carolina in 2005.  Many of his crusades were scheduled for one or two weeks, but the great number of people who turned out to hear him preach caused him to extend the length of his crusade to eight or more weeks.  Paul can remember that several of his friends took a train to New York the summer of 1957 to attend his crusade.  When they returned, that was all they could talk about.  They could not believe the number of people who turned out to hear Billy Graham preach.

                              
                                               Billy Graham

Several thoughts about Billy Graham and his message come to mind.  He never strayed from preaching the gospel of Christ and the cross.  That has been his message from beginning to the end.   His life totally reflected what he believed.  During the telecast on his birthday, Sean Hannity asked Billy Graham's grandson how his grandfather's preaching impacted him.  His grandson said that the way his grandfather lived his life impacted him much more than his preaching.  Throughout his ministry he always kept himself above reproach.  He would never allow himself to be caught in a compromising position with the opposite sex or in financial matters.  He took a salary from the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association rather than take a percent of the giving to the organization. 

Our prayer is that God will do something to wake America up and turn us around from the slippery slope we are on, (if we aren't already over the cliff).  He might raise up another Billy Graham or create a situation such that people will have no other recourse but to turn back to God and claim Jesus Christ as Savior.

As a side note, we kept four young ladies over night this past Saturday from God's Bible School in Cincinnati, OH.  It was so refreshing to be with young people who were respectful, talented and loved the Lord.  Both of us were so encouraged by being with young people who want to serve the Lord and have high moral and personal standards.  They were part of an 60 piece orchestra that performed at our church on Sunday morning.  Their performance was outstanding.

Paul is writing this so he wants to wish Gail a very happy birthday today on 11/12/13!!!!

Blessings and encouragement,

Paul, Gail, Pasty and Penny

LIGHT VERSES DARKNESS

I am light that has come into the world so that all who believe in me won't have to stay any longer in the dark.            John 12:46 The Message

This past Saturday night we moved our clocks back one hour to EST, which caused it to get light earlier in the morning but dark earlier in the evening. As we move towards the end of December the days are getting shorter and shorter which means there is more darkness to deal with. Paul worked in the pottery studio this morning and overheard two ladies talking about the darkness and how tired it made them. They indicated that as soon as it got dark at night, which is now 6:00, they were feeling very tired and ready to go to bed.  There are some people that come alive at night, but we are not those kind of people. We so enjoy the long evenings of twilight in the summer time, but we don't look forward to all the darkness during the winter. It must be a real challenge in Alaska to cope with the long periods of darkness this time of year.

                                  
                                     Jesus is the light of the world.

When we know the Lord as our personal Savior we no longer walk in darkness for He is the light of the world. How wonderful it is knowing Him and the blessing of His light on our lives. There are many Scriptures that describe Jesus as the light. In closing we would like to share with you the verse of I John 1:5, "God is light; in him there is no darkness at all."

          
        Sunrise taken by Christiane Palpant from her apartment window

Blessings and Encouragement,

Paul, Gail, Patsy, and Penny