Maui!

Craig and I have just returned from a trip to Maui. What a beautiful part of the world and what a privilege to be able to go and enjoy it. While there we celebrated 33 years since Craig proposed!

In the morning for the first few days Craig attended a medical conference. Then we got to relax and do some sight seeing which included a helicopter tour with front row seats, a hike in the rain forest and snorkeling.
Here is a picture of us in front of a waterfall which I crossed and stood under (I'll post the video next time) and a picture of a rainbow which greeted us one morning when we woke up.

Just wanted to touch base and begin to share this amazing trip with you.
Blessings
sue

The Fiercesome Four

Here is a picture of our four boys when they went with Craig to Scotland earlier this year.

I tend to focus so much on our sweet grandchildren that I thought I should at least give a little space to their daddies (and potential daddy to be).

From left to right you see, Mike (who is married to our older daughter, Sara), next is Josh, our first born (married to Shauna), Eric, our youngest (married to Amy), and Robert who is married to our younger daughter, Aimee.


All together they are a great bunch of guys and I'm very proud of each one of them.

"Lord, thank you for these men in my life and I'm praying for an outpouring of your power and life on each one. Give them hearts fully devoted to you, full of wisdom and servant hood. Guide them as the leaders of their homes. Show them how to love their wives as Jesus loves the church. Enable them to balance truth and grace in raising their little ones to know and honor you. Give them a passion for your Word and your ways. Let them be shining examples of Godly men in their workplace and community, family and church. To the praise of your glory. Amen." I love you guys.

Burnt Toast

When our children were young and we still lived in San Diego, Craig's parents started a fun Saturday morning tradition. They picked up our little ones early in the morning, and took them to their home where they all enjoyed a 'Carbon Toast Party' where they dipped burnt toast into coffee before eating it. The idea of burnt toast is pretty awful and dipping it in coffee isn't very appealing and eating it is nearly criminal in my opinion. Yet, for the children and their grandparents it continues to be a sacred memory of fun times together. So, when Great-granddad and Great-grandmumps came for a visit over the fourth of July, the tradition continued with the great grandchildren. Here are movie #1 and movie #2.

Frog Blog

When it rains in El Paso the water washes rocks out of the desert landscaping and frogs out of hiding. We usually don't know that there are frogs anywhere near us, until the rains come. Then, water fills the drainage area behind our house and the frogs begin to serenade us. Serenade isn't really very descriptive. Saying they annoy us is more accurate. Especially when a few of the critters end up in our pool , form a chorus and begin croaking as we being sleeping. The other night, around 2:00 AM, Craig got out of bed.
Groggy from sleep and wearing a sleep mask so I don't die, I mumbled, "What are you doing?"
"Getting rid of the frogs."
I my half-conscious state I thought he was going to shoot the little noise makers. And, in my typical logical manner, I thought, "That will make more noise than the little froggies." Of course I didn't care enough about this insight to get out of bed. Instead, and I dozed off.
When my hero returned I asked what he'd done, he told me he used the net and got two frogs out of the pool. I listened to the silent night air and fell to sleep, thankful that my husband is a man of action.
The next day, I spotted several frogs on our pool cover, which was wadded up in the middle of our pool. As I tried to catch one in the net,(which I held in one hand, since I was talking to our daughter on the cell phone), it jumped off into the water. I chased it, shrieking, "Oh no it got away! It's going to die. It's jumped into the water."
"Mom!" Sara, said, "frogs know how to swim. They're frogs."
"Oh yeah. But, they can't live in chlorinated water,can they?"
The answer is, 'not for long,' proven by the dead frog Craig scooped out of the pool that evening.
Well, I was thinking about how we as followers of Jesus, can live in this world for a time, but knowing Him means we've been reborn for another world, another place. Like that frog that jumped into the our pool and never got back out, it's dangerous to try to make this world our home. We're not meant to adapt our thinking or behavior or life to the elements here. This world is only the channel that will take us back to the place where we really belong.

Berries

Since childhood red raspberries have been my favorite. I remember them growing in the yard of my Swiss grandmother.

When they first arrived in the stores this season, I splurged and bought a tiny plastic container of the luscious berry for an exorbitant amount of money (well, ok, less than a half gallon of ice cream but more than a head of lettuce.) When I got home I placed them in one of the drawer of my refrigerator. Then, completely forgot about them.

How could I forget about something that I really wanted, I would enjoy and that cost me a lot (comparatively?) I'm not sure, but I did and when I finally remembered them, they were moldy and had to be thrown away!

What a shame. What a waste. What a good reminder, that the Lord has provided all manner of good and yummy and desirable gifts, opportunities and delights that are just waiting for us to come and get them.

Often we don't even take advantage of any of them. He's given us peace and we'd rather sulk and be miserable. He paid for our sins, yet we refuse to forgive ourselves. He provided for us to have the best fruit ever, the fruit borne by the Holy Spirit, but instead of gaining the benefit we act like these gifts do not belong to us.

So, here are some new berries. I remembered them and they are almost all eaten. I've enjoyed them and wanted to tell you about the berry lesson.
2Pe 1:3 - His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.

Let's Pary Today Prayer CD's

Hi Fiends,

If any of you have listened to any of the "Let's Pray Today" CD's (see link on left side of this page) and found them helpful, please consider letting my friend, Cathy, know. She's looking for endorsements (see below) and would really appreciate your input.

Thanks and blessings,

Sue

Hello dear friend, I wanted to take a moment to thank you for supporting Lets Pray Today Ministry and our efforts to transform women’s lives through an active relationship with the Lord.

Our first year has been amazing! We have distributed and sold almost 1000 prayer CDs and MP3 downloads. We have had opportunities to speak at churches, women’s events, retreats and conferences. Kay Arthur as well as the American Association of Christian Counselors have strongly endorsed the entire series. Moms In Touch International has added us to their website and we have been featured in newspaper articles in both Texas and New Mexico. In November of last year we were finally covering most of the costs of establishing the ministry and were able to distribute monies to mission efforts in China through the Bineham foundation. And now, thanks to a generous donation, we are close to being back in the studio to record our new CD entitled “Praying for My Prodigal.”

God be praised for what has been achieved!

While we have been focusing on reaching out to our local communities, we are now approaching a point where we are ready to take the next step toward national distribution. In order to do this, we need to find a distributor who sees the benefit of our ministry and our prayer CDs. Towards this end, I want to personally ask a favor from you. We have not heard back from many of you who have purchased one or more of our prayer CDs. By sharing just a few sentences about the difference these prayer CDs have made in your life or in the lives of your family and friends, you will provide us with the resources we need to secure a distributor.

If you are willing to share a few words with us, simply reply to this email, or you can visit us on our site. If you share personal details which you would like to be kept confidential, we will simply remove your name from any testimonial we use. We appreciate your help and will continue moving forward as God leads.

We pray for you God’s richest blessings – pressed down, shaken together and running over,

Cathy Endebrock and the Let’s Pray Today Ministry Team

Prayer is like riding a bicycle: you can learn about it, you can read about it, you can even watch it. But until you DO it, you’re missing the best part. Let’s Pray Today!!

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Craig and I have been viewing some great DVD's on marriage called, Love and Respect. We're learning a lot about the way God designed men and women. Even after over 30 years of marriage, this information is a bit startling because it really goes against the thinking of today's popular culture.
Have you ever thought you understood God's word on a subject just to discover that your knowledge was true but incomplete? This is how I feel, since I speak and teach about what the Bible says about marriage. From now on, I hope I can share in a way that is even more helpful.
The basic concept boils down to the fact that God created men to need respect, just like women need love. Need as in the air we breathe. Need as in food, water, shelter, except this is an emotional need that God created in men that we as women don't have in the same way. And that's why it's so difficult to fully understand or respond to this need in the lives of our husbands and sons. It can be a hard concept because, at least for me, I've really failed in this area. But I'm praying that the Lord will help me to be a better wife and to love my precious husband in ways that will meet his needs.
We often joke about the differences between male and female but don't take the next step in learning to appreciate and be thankful to God for designing us as He has. Now, one area that is considered primarily female is the inborn love of chocolate, which brings us to the picture I posted today.
Recently, Aimee went to find out why Emeline was so quiet and found that she had discovered her older sister's bag of chocolate kisses. Aimee is very careful to not let her girls have sugar and so this was Emeline's first taste of candy of any kind. When she saw her mom she held out the small, partially devoured foil wrapped candy and smiled before cramming it quickly into her mouth. I give Aimee credit that she went for the camera and called me to come and see her baby with her mouth coated with chocolate.
After laughing, I bent down and said, "So, Emeline, how did you like your first taste of chocolate?" She smiled, threw her arms up into the air and said, "Yah! Ummm!"
There you have it, proof that as women we have needs that the men in our lives may not full understand or appreciate and the same is true for them.