Prayer For Heidi

Heidi & her mommy, Loretta
Little Doll, Heidi

Her Pastor with her!!
Heidi just after birth!

A beautiful baby girl was born to our church on Wednesday night. Heidi Leanne Willman is the daughter of John & Loretta Willman. She is having complications and was taken from the hospital of birth to Valley Children's Hospital and is in Neonatal ICU. Heidi has been having seizures and the doctors are trying to discover the cause. There are 2 areas with blood on her brain and signs of lack of oxygen. Her parents are very strong and trusting in God, in fact as her mother lay in the hospital bed at a separate hospital yesterday, she said to me, "She is in God's hands now!" But it was obvious that her heart ached for the little one. Please keep Heidi and her parents in your prayers! She has two young siblings and the next couple of weeks are going to be extremely taxing on them all. I will update on little Heidi as I receive information!

A Day At The Zoo

Last Saturday, we decided to go to the zoo! It was to be a nice day of 82 degrees! That's great since today is 96! We called "the kids", our daughter and son-in-law, Misti and Adam, off we went!! It was a gorgeous day and we had a blast!!! Cherish loved all of her "fwiends!" (We shared a Corn Dog!!!)

Seeing the "Ewephants"

Petting the goats! She was amazed at the tail!

S.I.S. Conference

I just got back yesterday from S.I.S Conference! SIS stands for Safety in Sisterhood. It is a conference just for ministers wives and was in Tulare, California this year. My friends and I rarely miss one and we look forward all year to it. It is designed to be a retreat and to speak to our hearts specifically. Sis. Laquita Mullings heads this up with a large committee helping her out! I have always enjoyed it, but I have to say that this year will be a highlight for me! Sis. Cindy Miller from New Jersey was the speaker and she spoke to us about finding out who we are individually and being that person. We are too stress driven and we need to do the best at what we were designed to be! Boy, did I need to hear that! I try to be all things to all people and only God can do that!

Ok, to the fun stuff!

The theme this year was,
The rich things in life....Friendship and Chocolate!

Yes, chocolate!!! Yummmm, they had chocolate EVERYWHERE! On the benches when we came in each session, in our packets, on the tables, and the best of all, both nights there were chocolate fondue fountains!!!! Dark Chocolate, Light Chocolate, and White Chocolate (my favorite) and there were plates overflowing with fruit, graham crackers, marshmallows to dip in the chocolate! Oh, yes and there was food, too! Scrumptious!!!

Then, on Tuesday night, they had brought in 2 massage chairs & massage therapists!!! Yes!!!! The girl who did my massage was fabulous!!! Then there was paraffin wax for pedicures and manicures. It was too wonderful!! We were pampered and then pampered some more!! And what a time of friendship, laughter, and CHOCOLATE!!!

I went with my friends, Lori Domingues and Lorraine Bertram, again! We had a great time and no I did not take Cherish! I got to sit through entire sessions with out going out, I got to eat entire meals without interruption!!!

But I did miss her terribly!!

I'll add a slide show below of the fun!! But first, to Sis. Pat Keyes, "Thank you for helping me go!" You and "Papa" mean the world to us and you and I are going to go one day and we'll have real massages and pedicures done! You will love it!!

The Piano

My mother-in-law did the sweetest thing recently!! We had no idea, but she had bought Cherish a black baby grand child's piano!!! She called the day that it was to arrive and told us that she had shipped something (she lives in Houston)! She told us that we would have to put it together (I had no idea what it was at that time) and that she had gotten insurance on the shipping. OK, sounds good! The delivery man rang the doorbell, I answered and the box was almost too heavy for me!!! I got Cherish, set up my camera to video clips, position it and Cherish to capture the moment. We made a huge production out of the whole thing! She had even printed a 5X7 picture of Cherish and taped it to the box. It was a lot of work!! Well, I started cutting the tape, removing Styrofoam, and pulling out a tray of legs, the top of the piano which way about 2 feet by 3 feet. This was a big thing. Then I got to the main part of of the piano. It was broken into pieces! The keys were everywhere, the wood broken, etc. Cherish was devastated! I quickly turned off the camera! She kept crying and saying, "Mommy, fis (fix) it! Can Daddy fis it?"

Of course, there was no way to "fis" it! Cherish cried for days about that silly piano. Of course, when we tried to find a new one, the manufacturer stopped producing this one, they only make it in white!! We finally found a Schoenhut one that is darling. When Cherish and I walked in the house at 1 o'clock in the morning from our LA trip, there in our entry way covered with a blanket was the new one all put together waiting on our little concert pianist. Here is the new one and Cherish after riding for 5 hours from LA!! Be sure to see the video clip of her playing!!

Play Cherish, Play!

Thanks Mom, for making a little girl happy! Oh, the new one is getting scratched up! She is at it 3/4 of the day!!

L.A. Pictures!!!!!

To Lorraine and Lori, it is amazing how we all look so different, have different tastes, and can be apart for extended times, but we all have the same heart and that heart spans the tastes and time! You guys will be dear forever! I think often of the quotes about true friends and I know that we three will always be just that! Before my dear friend Denise Smith passed away, she gave me a framed picture with a little quote that said,

"Friends are there when good times aren't!"

I think that all of us feel that way about one another!! We "are there!"

Here they are!!! I have finally sat down long enough to get the pictures downloaded!!! What a wonderful trip! I even bought some things!!! I rarely buy for myself! I buy for Cherish and Misti, not this time!!! I wore new things BOTH services yesterday!! Oh, speaking of Misti, she keeps bringing up the fact that I didn't get her ANYTHING!! LOL I started to a couple of times and then I would put the things back and think, "No, let Adam do it!!" What a great feeling!! Oh, by the way, when I got home, my house was spotless!! You can tell that my sweet hubby missed us, he had vacuumed, dusted, did the dishes, cleaned mirrors, etc.. Thanks, babe!!


Back to the trip, it was a lifetime memory in making! Next time, Cherish is staying home!! That will free me up even more!

Dear Ma & Pa

Dear Ma and Pa,I am well. Hope you are. Tell Brother Walt and Brother Elmer the Marine Corps beats working for old man Minch by a mile. Tell them to join up quick before all of the places are filled. I was restless at first because you got to stay in bed till nearly 6 a.m. but I am getting so I like to sleep late. Tell Walt and Elmer all you do before breakfast is smooth your cot, and shine some things. No hogs to slop, feed to pitch, mash to mix, wood to split, fire to lay. Practically nothing. Men got to shave but it is not so bad, there's warm water. Breakfast is strong o n trimmings like fruit juice, cereal, eggs, bacon, etc., but kind of weak on chops, potatoes, ham, steak, fried eggplant, pie and other regular food, but tell Walt and Elmer you can always sit by the two city boys that live on coffee. Their food, plus yours, holds you until noon when you get fed again. It's no wonder these city boys can't walk much. We go on 'route marches,' which the platoon sergeant says are long walks to harden us. If he thinks so, it's not my place to tell him different. A 'route march' is about as far as to our mailbox at home. Then, the city guys get sore feet and we all ride back in trucks. The country is nice, but awful flat. The sergeant is like a school teacher. He nags a lot. The captain is like the school board. Majors and colonels just ride around and frown. They don't bother you none. This next will kill Walt and Elmer with laughing. I keep getting medals for shooting. I don't know why. The bulls-eye is near as big as a chipmunk head and don't move, and it ain't shooting at you like the Higgett boys at home. All you got to do is lie there all comfortable and hit it. You don't even load your own cartridges. They come in boxes.Then, we have what they call hand-to-hand combat training. You get to wrestle with them city boys. I have to be real careful though, they break real easy. It ain't like fighting with that ole bull at home. I'm about the best they got in this, except for that Tug Jordan from over in Silver Lake. I only beat him once. He joined up the same time as me, but I'm only 5'6' and 130 pounds and he's 6'8' and near 300 pounds dry. Be sure to tell Walt and Elmer to hurry and join before other fellers get onto this setup and come stampeding in.Your loving daughter,Alice

Another Spontaneous Trip!!

I think the only way that pastor's wives will ever get away is to be spontaneous! Planning never works! On Tuesday morning, Lorraine Bertram called to see if Lori Domingues and I could leave asap and meet in Los Angeles for a 4 day getaway! We did it!! Within 12 hours we had all washed our hair, packed our bags (Cherish's, too by the way!!) and driven to LA and were checked in to a hotel at Disneyland. At this point we do not have plans to go to Disney, however, we have NO PLANS AT ALL!!! Today, we got up late after going to sleep at 3 am, we slowly got dressed, at lunch, and went to the garment district !!! Yes!!! I bought 3 things for myself!! That is a NEVER!! We came back over by Disneyland and ate at the Cheesecake Factory! We even ordered dessert which is another NEVER!!
Oh, about dessert, when they sat it down, Cherish started saying, "Happy
Cake!" "Sing Happy Birday!" So, we very quietly sang it!! Well, the waiter was great, he came by and said, who's birthday! We explained that it wasn't anybody's, that we were just entertaining her. Well, in about 5 minutes, here come the waitstaff, with a hot fudge sundae in a tiny little sundae glass, with a candle lit on top, they all sang happy birthday and Cherish was beaming, she kept blowing out the candle while they were singing and they kept relighting. It was so cute!!!
OK, back to our trip! Here we are, Cherish is asleep, Lorraine and I are blogging, and Lori (who doesn't have a laptop) is reading a magazine and talking to us as we type!! LOL!! What a wonderful time! We have no plans from this moment on! All I know is that I will be home sometime Friday!!! I'm taking pictures and will add them sometime!!

Labor Day on the lake!

Our day was spontaneous!!! First, Stephen and Adam (our son-in-law) helped someone move furniture. Then we decided to go to Oakhurst, which is the mountains to eat Bar-B-Q! On the way there, Lori Domingues called and said that they were doing a crazy spur of the moment thing! We always do that with them!! They were going to the lake (at Oakhurst) to rent a boat!! Now, it is 3:30 in the afternoon! So.......we met them, rented a larger boat! It was Cherish's first boat ride! We had a wonderful time! We played games, fed the ducks and just enjoyed ourselves!!!

What a wonderful Labor Day we had! I'll tell you more tomorrow!! Unplanned fun with dear friends can sometimes be the most wonderful!!!!

And Again I Say, "Rejoice!!!"

Tomorrow is Sunday and that is what I will do at service! Rejoice!

(one service because of the holiday!)

This is the day that the Lord hath made,

I will rejoice and be glad in it!

A Senior Moment

For all who are seniors --- for all of you who know seniors --- and for all of us who will be seniors.It pays to be able to laugh about it when you are!"Where Is My Paper?"The irate customer calling the newspaper offices, loudly demanded to know where her Sunday edition was."Ma'am," said the employee, "today is Saturday. The Sunday paper is not delivered 'til Sunday."There was quite a pause on the other end of the phone, followed by a ray of recognition."So that's why no one was in church today."

Just thought this picture is cute!

Sis. Keyes sent me this picture of Cherish from during our stay with them. I just thought that Cherish was so cute with her beautiful blue eyes and the ketchup mustache!!

I thought we cleaned up the house!!!

This past Sunday night, Cherish thought she was a princess for sure. She finally has enough hair to wear her hair up and she was twirling for sure! She was posing like it was a photo shoot!

Now, we are 5 days down the road, it's Friday, Stephen is going to preach a men's meeting tonight and tomorrow, so I'm having a mini sleep-over! My mom and sister are coming to spend the night with Cherish and me! We, Stephen and I, straightened the house up, I dusted and we just did a surface clean! We no more than got finished and I looked over at Cherish's kitchen (compliments of Papaw) and the pictures below show what I found! I bought her some princess graham crackers yesterday, she had poured the whole box into the sink and was "washen them, mommy!" Well, they were more than in the sink, I started taking pictures and she jumped in and started posing like it was some great thing she had done! I had her help me pick them up, and we let the dogs in to get the crumbs! They were thrilled, of course!! This is just a moment in my eventful days!!! I forgot to mention that her kitchen sits between my kitchen/dining room and the living room! So this mess was IN THE MAIN PART of the house!!!!

"Open it, Mommy!"

OK, Cherish is at a really funny age!! For example:

This morning she was destroying the house which is a common occurrence, she had a discarded set of keys that her grandma gave her. She was going to all of the doors and pretending to be unlocking them. Well, she locked my bedroom door and we were all on the outside. She knows that when she has done that before, her daddy goes to the laundryroom where I have a drawer that has my "tools" in it. There is a small hammer for hanging pictures, a screwdriver for whatever we need it for in a hurry, a measuring tape, etc. She came through the house, said "bebroom door wocked!" I knew immediately, told her daddy, which was on the phone and we got a laugh out of that. In the meantime I could hear her rummaging in the laundry room, as usual, I sort of overlooked her goings on! Here she comes, saying "Here Mommy, unwock door!" I looked up and what did she have? A flashlight! I said, "Cherish, that will not unlock the door!" She was emphatic, "Yes, unwock it!" and insisted that we could unlock that door with that flashlight. I thought it so cute that she knew that her daddy goes to that drawer and gets a screwdriver to open it. Well, it wasn't in the drawer because he had taken it to his tool box, so she got the next best thing, a flashlight!

I am a great "improviser!" I called my dad who is an even better "improviser" and said, "OK, we have another one just like us, she doesn't have what it takes to fix it, so she got something else. Any idea on how to use the flashlight to open the door?" We very quickly decided that we could shine the light in the hole and surely it would open since Cherish is so determined.

What really happened? Dad got off of the phone, got the screwdriver and in about 5 secounds, he had the door open!

This road leads in many different directions!

I sat for a while yesterday, marveling at how God is working in Misti’s life. You do your best while raising your children and leave the rest up to Him. We as a church have been at a pivotal point, Stephen & I as pastor and wife, have done our part with praying, fasting, his teaching and preaching God’s word, and we reach a certain point, then sin and people reek havoc and we are left to clean up the aftermath!
I, for one, have had a hard time with the continual issues, knowing that God has promised “Us” revival here. I realized this past week that my focus has been on the wrong things. Here we are with over 20 brand new people in various stages (Christina & Michael & children, ~Teresa Gutierrez, & 3 children, ~ Joseph, James, Julia & their mother~ Augie, Trina & 3 children~ and a host of visitors that my hubby knows their names, shame on me, I’m bad with names!!) And, here I am focusing on whether this one is in a bad mood, if so and so is acting cranky, who is missing church, and what will go wrong tonight at church. Not thinking for one minute about just plain PRAISE!!! I do praise, don't get me wrong, but before service, I worry! Shame on me! I went in Sunday with a total different mindset, and God met us from the very beginning! He even spoke to me directly through other ministry that He is in control, His promises are still my promise, and that He knows exactly where we are and that we are to remain strong because He is taking care of everything. That we are at a point that we can go any direction and that we had stepped over the line to the next level in the spirit! Wow, I didn’t even look for frowns after that!!
Back to Misti, I knew that she and Adam were carrying a heavy burden for certain people and situations in our church. I have also noticed a new depth in both of them. She sat at my house last night, both of us in tears, as she talked about her passion, her determination to see God’s church in Kerman prosper, and the fact that they are binding with us! You see, the missionary, Bro. Peircy that was with us on Sunday morning spoke that our revival would come when the church’s burden met the burden of the pastor. He said that until present, we have carried it and God was waiting on the church to join us. I have blamed (not spoken out loud, just to myself) every flaw on our lack of knowledge, that my family must pray and fast more, be harder, be nicer, be…be……… as of Sunday I realized that we cannot do what God can’t do! He is waiting on others to join us!
Do I still worry about so and so? Yes, because I want them to be part of the revival that God has promised. I want to see the fruits of the Spirit in their lives. But, they have to make decision for themselves, my worry will not do it!!
Misti, don’t ever forget what you have learned in the past year about dedicated prayer. Every time in the past few months that we have gone to focused prayer for specific situations, it was just days before God answered. You were amazed on Sunday when the very ones you have been interceding for, were lost in the Lord with no prodding! On their own they were worshiping and loving God.
He is so good! It blesses my heart to see you dedicated and weeping before the Lord! Never lose that! Dad and I love you and Adam dearly!

)

Campmeeting Pictures

We had a wonderful time with our friends at Campmeeting 2008! Here is a little bit of our fun! Enjoy!

God, Direct These Feet

My little 2 year old has not slept in church since she was 9 months old. She has always been too busy! We just got through with campmeeting and she is exhausted! Yesterday, Stephen preached for Bro. Keyes here in Santa Maria, and she fell asleep right away. Her sissy was here, too, and she pulled her shoes off right away. When I came back from the altar, this is what I saw............Cherish's bare feet, with her blanket thrown over her legs. They looked so sweet to me, I grabbed my new iphone and took this picture. Then I thought, with the help of my aunt, Karen Hopper, these would be darling for a blog. Hmmm, what do I say, then I remembered Stephen's message yesterday about the next generation.

It fits, God, it's not enough to just put shoes on these feet, that have a blister on the side, but I cloth and teach her, I need you to direct her. Where would you have her to walk? Where would you have her to stay away from. What are the footsteps that you have prepared for her? Don't let her ever take a step without you!

Happy 23rd Anniversary, BABE!!

Our Wedding Day

Phoenix, Arizona

August 10, 1985

23 Anniversary

Sunday, August 10, is our 23rd wedding anniversary! Babe, I have to say that I love you more now than then! You have always been my best friend, but it is amazing, each day we seem to be more in sinc with one another. We know what the other one is thinking and going to say before we even say it!

I am so blessed that God saw fit to put you in my life! I love you dearly! Thank you for being such a wonderful husband and loving me, as well as our two gorgeous daughters! (I think that you grow more handsome each day!)

Don't forget, you fashion people, this wedding was 23 years ago, the decor was a little different then! LOL

Here are a few pictures of us in the last few years!

I like this one, babe!!

And these are this week!

I think his weight and hair are both distinguishing and I love it!!!
Today!! Acting Goofy!!

The "Pwincess" Bedroom

Cherish's daddy and I finally got her room done....Well, there is one wall to paint and decorate yet, but here is the outcome!! We wanted girly but something that would last for a while. We painted the squares and diamond in the colors from her comfortor and I painted the silly flowers on the wall (they are the colors in the stripe!) and hung pictures in strange places, we love the outcome. I have to get lamp shades yet, I'm thinking pink with black boa or black with pink.........We'll see. She was playing "pwincess" yesterday and started saying, "How Annie look Mommy, How it fit Annie Mommy?" I turned around and this is what I found. It's a good thing that Annnie is goofy and doesn't care! Alex, our male, would not have stood for it!! That's princess high heels laying there, I'm suprised those weren't on Annie, too!

Great and Mighty is His Holy Name!

Today, I just really feel like magnifying Him! I am so greatful for all that He has done for my family, the wonderful church that He brought us to, the great friends and family! I have been staying close to the updates of Timothy Simoneaux and the reports are so wonderful, still in need of prayer, but he's asking for cookies! Yeh! He's a normal kid, well, for that matter, I might ask for cookies, too, so I'm a kid, right?

I am awestruck today at His Majesty! Cherish loves to play "pwincess" and that is beautiful royalty, but it is hard to comprehend how wonderful, powerful, almighty...............He is, then on the other hand, I consider the tender side of Him. I visualize Him holding the tiniest of premature babies in the palm of His hand, think of the times He stopped to speak to the cast offs! He is amazing!

The song I'm singing today while I pack for campmeeting......

Great and Mighty is His Holy Name

Great and Mighty is His Holy Name

Great and Mighty is His Holy Name

He is an Awesome God!

To any of you who feel hopeless today, He is your hope!!