Cactus Flower

  Gongorra, March 12,2021 Last year at the beginning of the Big Mess no one really knew how long it would all last, and what would become of church and missions.  It was a year of "What are we allowed to do this week?"  For several months, the answer was:  "Not much!"  The big thrust of our interior work previously had involved lots of personal contact with people with home Bible studies and visits.  So, what were we to do? Byron was able to continue Bible study lessons with one young lady through the cell phone app called Whatsapp.   M any interior communities have fair Internet via radio signals and antennas.   Most have no cell phone coverage, so it wasn't an option for all. As things opened up some, we were able to use the time to make some "no-contact" mapping trips to complete Byron's work to plot all the dirt roads in our area with information about each community.  Occasionally we were able to do a little evangelism with our cute...

Do you know that one request always on your mind? That request you make in every prayer service in the church?  The one who seems to never have a firm and positive response? That one it seems God doesn't seem to hear? Hear my prayer, O Lord , And let my cry come to You. Psalm 102: 1 I have a request like that. For a long time I pray for a boy who is very dear to us. I pray that he will have a stable home full of love. I pray that he will have wise adults in his life teaching him to live well. I pray that he may have those who teach him well about spiritual concepts. Hear my prayer, O God; Give ear to the words of my mouth. Psalm 54: 2 I think I started praying for this boy while he was still in his mother's belly. I remember when I met her in the shade of a peacock-eye tree with it's little red seeds that my boys loved to collect in jars. She probably does not even remember ... When he was three years old, he came to spend time every day...

When I was a little girl, my family would sometimes go to West Virginia to see the old relatives of Granddad Mullennax and Nanny Granny.  I have some vague, scattered memories of some of those trips.  I think most of remembrances have to do with Aunt Alma's house in Clarksburg.   I remember driving into the town going down a long hill like you were coming out of the mountains.  I can remember the beautiful old houses and a big church.  I'm pretty sure there was a big white house across the street from Aunt Alma's house.  And I remember playing in somebody's attic, maybe hers.  And I can recall some big dinners with a table full of all kinds of food. Aunt Alma wasn't really an aunt.  I think she was a cousin of your Grandma Beckner.  But that is what we called her, and we called her husband, Uncle Forest.  Another vivid memory I have is of all the family men playing cards around a big table.  Uncle Forest liked to play cards, an...

Last week I told you the rest of the Hit and Wait story.  After hours of waiting, being hungry and thirsty, the police finally gave back all my documents and said we were free to go. A few days later, someone called our house asking for me.  It was the beer truck man!  I was never sure how he got our number.  I don't know if he had written down my name, or if I had given him a tract, or if I actually gave it to him for some reason or another - I don't think so on the last one.  Anyway.  He said that he had some expenses for medicine and wondered if I would pay for the medicine.  Ok.  Hmmm. And what to do now?  I talked to Uncle Byron who suggested that perhaps we should and that the amount wasn't that much so it didn't sound like a trick.  I agreed to meet the man.  I said that I would meet him at the beer plant where he worked. I took David's mother with me.  I had asked the man to tell me the name of his supervisor.  Whe...

In the summer of 2014 while we were in the States on furlough, William decided he would like to go on back to Brazil.  The whole family couldn't go at that time but we had tickets scheduled for July and William wanted to go.  Uncle Byron had wanted to take at least one good camping trip while we were all still together.  So we set to some quick planning for a weekend camping trip and looked for a place where the boys could do some spelunking.  Do you know what that is? Once William had read a book about the man that discovered the Mammoth Cave system and he really wanted to go there.  Sadly Tennessee was just too far away for a weekend trip, so we looked for a cave with spelunking that was closer and came upon the Organ Cave in West Virginia after some web searches.  We found a campground nearby and made reservations and got set to go. The weekend looked to be rainy and things were not going very smoothly.  Dalton wasn't real keen on going on the trip....