Jaden and Cailyn Playdate

Matthew 18:10 Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven.


Jaden and I enjoyed a playdate with Cailyn and her Grandma Lucille this morning. The kids swam and played while Lucille and I visited and got a little better acquainted. We are new friends and this was our 2nd time to get together for fellowship. It was a fun morning and lunchtime with our friends over today.

Happy Birthday to Kay!!!

Proverbs 9:11 For by me thy days shall be multiplied, and the years of thy life shall be increased.

My friend, Kay, is celebrating her birthday today. I won't say how many, but she is some 2 years and 2 months younger than I am. :) She was the church secretary at our home church way back in the 80's. I had the privilege of working with Kay in the church office and enjoyed a friendship with her as well. She eventually left us, got married, is a mom and lives a very busy life. She is today's version of "Erma Bombeck" and I so much enjoy her daily emails with stories of her life as Dan's wife and Ryan's mom. As my Dad always said about Kay, "She's a sight!! "Happy Birthday to you, Kay ~~ and many more!! Love ya! ~~Susan

DAY OF EVIL: 9-11-01

Let them be confounded that persecute me, but let not me be confounded: let them be dismayed, but let not me be dismayed: bring upon them the day of evil, and destroy them with double destruction.
Jeremiah 17:18

I am sitting here watching FOX NEWS as they replay the 9/11/01 morning news show from that awful day six years ago. And I am crying. To see that first tower on fire as they report that a plane has crashed into it brings back the feelings that surged through me that day. It was a terrible tragedy and we wondered for a few minutes about how that could have happened. And then the 2nd plane slammed into the 2nd tower and we realized that something terribly wrong was happening right here in America. The tears in our eyes, the fear in our minds, and the chill in our hearts came upon us....

Watching the replay of Andy Card as he comes in and interrupts President Bush while he is reading to school children.... chills all over again.

Watching the footage of men with the NYFD as they approach the towers on fire and to know that many of those men in just a few minutes would perish and enter eternity either saved and in heaven or lost and in hell as the mighty Twin Towers crumbled and crashed down upon them.... and the tears flow more.

Watching the replay as the newscasters report that the Pentagon had been hit and then the plane crash in PA and wondering who and what and where was next...chills all over again.

The evil was everywhere. It permeated that very day.... chills all over again.

Watching the replay of President Bush as he gives his first address on the news and how he rose to the occasion as our Commander in Chief. How thankful we were that he was in that Oval Office and NOT Al Gore.... chills all over again.

May we NEVER FORGET the terror that was perpetrated on every American on that September morning.

Our churches were full on Sunday, September 16, 2001. We all cried and begged God to have mercy on America and to please help us through the dark days of the aftermath of the attack. The churches weren't quite as full on the following Sunday. And soon we were back to our mostly normal numbers in attendance and back to an almost normal way of life. (It will NEVER be like it was pre-9/11.) But we Americans were strong. We wanted to get back to normality... back to the business of our daily lives, back to our fun past times. We wanted to forget that there was (and still is) an enemy out there seeking to destroy us. Basically, that enemy hates us because we love God. (As ungodly as America by and large is becoming day by day, we are still known as a Christian nation. May God please help us, His faithful Remnant.) As I watch Fox News this morning, they have the banner reading: 9-11 "The Day America Changed." I am reminded and am so thankful that we serve the True and Living God Who NEVER changes.

May we never forget that this is a spiritual war as well as a physical war. May we never forget our men and women around the world who are fighting for our freedom. Our enemy is empowered by Satan and seeks to bring down America and all that is good about our Country. Thank God that we know the END OF THE STORY and WHO wins the final battle to be fought on this earth. Let us all be busy about our Father's business for who knows how much longer our freedoms will stand that enable us to labor for the Master.

Welcome to our Campus Daughters

Lamentation 4:21 Rejoice and be glad, O daughter...

Richard and I were so very blessed to have our six new freshman campus daughters as well as our 5 other campus daughters over for Sunday dinner and afternoon visit in our home. It was the first time to get together with our new girls, and we found that we have the sweetest and most lovely girls from all over America as well as from two foreign countries. After lunch, we had a "family meeting" and planned a lot of activities for our get-togethers throughout this school year. Here is a little bit about our daughters this year (not in order as pictured): Freshman Julie is from Texas and is majoring in commercial art; Sophomore Darla is from Tennessee and is majoring in medical office systems. Freshman Kelsey is from Tennessee and is majoring in commercial art. Freshman Kaylee is from Tennessee and is majoring in music education (voice). Sophomore Melissa is from Wisconsin and is majoring in Nursing. Senior Katharina is from Canada and is majoring in youth ministries. Freshman Candiace is from South Carolina and is majoring in nursing. Sophomore Melannie is from Peru and is majoring in nursing. Freshman Jess is from Connecticut and is majoring in elementary education. Freshman Jennifer is from Indiana and is majoring in music education (strings). Second semester sophomore Diana from Ohio is majoring in pre-med. These girls are great group, and I know we will have a wonderful year together. The picture of the girls was made at our house on Sunday afternoon. Interesting Note: the girls on each end (blue top and black top) are twins: Kaylee and Kelsey. Melannie (in black in the front middle) was honored as the September birthday girl. It was a fun afternoon with our 11 campus daughters!

NEWS FLASH!!!

Galatians 6:9 And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.

Jaden is 99% potty trained. We have worked on this all year (since he turned 2 ~~ and that's about the time that this picture was made) and honestly, he just was NOT interested. Well, the child recently decided on his own that he was ready and about 2 weeks ago and got much more interested. He told his teacher at church on Wednesday night, "Miss Dorothy, I have to go potty!" and so she took him to the bathroom in the 3-year-old area and he got his clothes down, pottied, and pulled his clothes back up. He has been dry for me the past 2 Wednesdays and has been dry at school all this past week. Amy finally put him in his underwear for nursery school (instead of pull-ups) as she figured out that he does much better in his real underwear. I think he has to go 10 straight days at school w/o wetting his pants and then they will move him right up to the K3 nursery program. YEAH!!!!!

He was outside playing on Saturday afternoon and came running in our house saying he needed to go "CaCa" and Grandpa said Jaden hopped right up on that toilet and pooped. He wasn't early about it (he will be 3 on November 2) but better late than ever!!

Jaden has heard his Mommy and Grandma say, "We are SO so proud of you!" and we are!

My Friends in the Hospital

Matthew 25:36 I was sick, and ye visited me

After the Friday morning Bible Study at A/T, I met another friend and we did some hospital visitation today. It was a joy to see our friend from church, Dee, as she is recuperating from surgery on Wednesday. There was a chance that she had cancer and we all rejoiced and praised God that it wasn't! Dee is a lovely wife and the mother of five children: high schoolers down to 2 years old. She is a lovely Christian woman and it was truly a blessing to visit with her today. She is set to be discharged on Saturday and we thank God for the healing He is doing in her body.

Our second visit was with a dear friend, Angie, who suffered a stroke last week. Angie is approximately 82 years old and was planning a trip to the French Riviera when she was struck down by her stroke. She is unable to communicate but is making some tiny improvement as far as being able to squeeze your hand on command. She is such an active and adventuresome Christian woman, and it was difficult seeing her in that shape today. She will be getting a feeding peg put in her stomach on Monday and later next week, she will be discharged to a nursing home. My heart goes out to Angie's daughter, Ronda, as she and her brothers make these difficult decisions regarding their lovely mother. We remain in prayer for God's will to be accomplished in Angie's life.

It was such a joy to make those visits with my friend Dorothy today. We enjoyed a late lunch at Olive Garden; and when I took her home, I got my first tour of her's and Dan's brand new home. It is so very lovely. They built next door to their son, daughter-in-law and 2 grandkids so I KNOW how full her heart is with God's blessings.

Reunited with my cousin, Sharon

Hebrews 13:1 ¶ Let brotherly love continue.

I saw a cousin last evening whom I had not seen in at least 25 years. It was such a sweet reunion with Sharon. She is my only girl cousin on my mom's side and we were just 5 months apart in age. As kids and young teens, it was always so much fun to get together. She lived in Georgia and we lived in Alabama and those get-togethers didn't occur too often, but I loved her.

Sharon married young and after that, I didn't see much of her. Our lives took different directions and we grew apart. That is not to say that through the years I haven't thought about her and wondered how she was getting along, but that young bond had been broken and we had grown apart. So what a surprise it was to hear from her that she was here in our city visiting someone. Sharon had lost her husband in January and was eager to hook back up with family. We made plans to get together on Wednesday for supper and then she went to church with Richard and me. It was so nice to reconnect and catch up. She will go back to life in another state and I will go back to my life here. We didn't even exchange addresses, but we have each other's phone numbers. I hope we can stay in touch.

Ministry on Campus ~~ and new campus daughters

2 Corinthians 4:1 ¶ Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not...

It has been a busy time of ministry, but what better way to spend our days in this life?! I was available to help with the college ministry of being at the welcome table for parents of new students. A week ago right now, we volunteers met with the lady who heads it up and received our assignment of times to "man" the "orange juice table." We did that through Tuesday and what a joy it was to greet the parents of new students coming in from all over the country and many from around the world. Having been in their shoes when we brought Amy down for her freshman year in 1993, I was aware of some of their concerns and emotions and hope that I was able to deliver some comfort and assurance as they would be leaving their off-spring here and returning home without them. It was a great week of ministering in that light.

Speaking of ministry, the Lord used circumstances to bring us six new freshman girls to be our campus daughters this school year. One girl is Jennifer from Indiana. *Yellow shirt in the picture) Our son Chip had a girl in his youth group at his church in IN whose friend was coming down for school so Chip called us and "alerted" us that Jennifer was coming. He was able to provide an email address so we got to know Jennifer (and her parents!) before Jennifer ever got on the plane to fly down by herself. Richard and I picked her up at the airport and at the same time saw a girl who had arrived and was looking for a way to the college so since we already had Jennifer with us, we invited Jessica to ride with us to the college. She did and she is now our new campus daughter from Connecticut. Jess is in the red shirt.

Darla, a freshman daughter from last year, had emailed us a few weeks ago that two girls from her Christian school in TN were coming as freshmen. I was actually "working" the "orange juice table" when the twins and their parents arrived on campus. We had not corresponded but when I met them, I knew their last name and with the two girls there, I knew it was the folks that Darla had told me about. So I was able to be their official greeter on campus and tell them that I was their campus mom. That was neat!! The twins are Kelsey and Kaylee. Their parents were so nice and actually the four of us (without the girls) went to dinner together on Thursday night before they returned home to Memphis on Thursday. I didn't have my camera to make pics of Kelsey and Kaylee nor of their parents at the time. :(

And then we have a new girl from South Carolina. Candiace was here on campus working all summer when we met her through a friend.We were able to have her over and to take her out to eat over the summer and so we requested her for a campus daughter. We are also "adopting" Katharina the "friend" who is a senior this year. Katharina is from Canada and has never had a campus family. So we decided "better late than never" and she will be an unofficial campus daughter this year. (Candiace on left and Katharina on the right in the pic.)

And #6 is Julie from Texas. Last Sunday, we took to Sunday dinner at a restaurant the two girls (Jennifer and Jess) that we had picked up at the airport on Saturday. Jennifer asked if she could bring a roommate. We said, "Certainly" and that's how we met Julie from Texas and asked if she would like to request us for campus parents. She did and that's how she became freshman daughter #6. (I forgot to take my camera on Sunday so didn't get a pic of Julie.)

We have 2 freshman daughters from last year who are back. They are Darla from Tennessee and Melissa from Wisconsin. And to round off our group, we have 2 other girls we had "adopted" as campus daughters last year: Diana from Ohio and Melannie from Peru for a total of 11 girls this year who will be our daughters.

We are having them all over for Sunday dinner in our home this week so I am trying to decide what to cook for the girls. I can't wait and know it will be a fun time. I'm sure I'll post some pics from that first event with all of the girls. It will be fun to introduce them to each other and then to turn them loose to form some fast friendships with their campus sisters.

Sign up to receive updates on Joe Keller in Iowa

I have been sharing updates on Joe Keller, a young man in the ministry in Iowa. He was involved in a horrible auto wreck approximately 3 weeks ago. There is now a wonderful website where you can go to get updates. This is at carepages.com and you sign up for a FREE account. Once you sign up and go to Joe's site at joekellercarepage you will automatically receive notification when a new update is posted. I know the family appreciates your prayers for this man as he has a long way to go. His wife and his twin brother do the updates, and their strong faith in the Lord shine through each one. You will be blessed to read them and then can pray for the specific requests as they are posted. Please go there now and register to receive Joe's updates. God is good!!

Sign Up to receive Pollard Family Updates in North Carolina

We have been posting updates and praying for a young pastor and his family who were involved in a very serious car accident a couple of weeks ago. Bro. Jeremy Pollard, his pregnant wife Tiffany, and 16-month-old son, Stephen live in NC and were injured on their way to a Monday night revival service at their church. Bro. Jeremy is still in a coma and in bad shape. Wife Tiffany is doing much better and may be discharged in a few days. Little Stephen is having surgery on his neck to repair damage done to ligaments. There is now a website where you can register to receive notification when a new update is posted on the Pollard family. If you want to keep up with them, please go to carepages.com and sign up for your free account. The carepage name for the Pollards is: UGBCGrove. Once you sign up, you will be notified of new updates as they are posted. I know the family would appreciate your continued interest and PRAYERS as Jeremy and Little Stephen both have a long way to come. I will no longer be posting updates so please be sure to sign up and stay connected. God bless!! ~~Susan