Value

The first pictures is a beautiful bay horse named Forever Amber owned by Allison Elizabeth Adams. I really like this mare. She reminds me of my horse, Velvet. The second and fourth pictures are of CGH Flair for Fury with Brandon aboard. She is a three year old mare that is ready to start her 4th show season. This is the second year under saddle. She was the high point winner for Country Trail Pleasure classes this past show season. She also won the Breeders Cup 2 year old under saddle and conformation class during the UMH World Show. The gray filly is Ann's Mt Treasure. She won the High Point Trophy for Yearling Conformation Filly. This will be her third year in the show ring.

I met some people in a feed store last summer and in the course of conversation I found that they were interested in buying a mountain horse. I invited them to come to my farm to look at my horses. I gave directions and went on home. From what I gathered in the conversation, these folks weren't going to buy a horse from me today and probably not any day but I still invited them to come.

An hour or so later they drove up to the barn and started looking around. Bob and I had brought a couple of horses in that fit the narrow description of the horse for which they were looking. In the feed store I learned they were looking for a horse for the wife. She was a tiny little woman, shorter than I am. (Hey watch out there, I am just vertically challenged). She wanted a horse that was not tall to make it easier to mount. I have a horse named Amigo. He is 14.2hh. She wanted a chocolate with white mane and tail. Amigo has a beautiful white mane and tail. She wanted a gelding. Again Amigo.

But then we started to talk about price. That's were the conversation broke down. I told them how I had him priced. (I wasn't taking less.) They did not want to pay that much but they came to see him anyway. They also had the husband's brother with them. So he was also an interested party.

I already how an idea they wouldn't be buying when they got out of the car. We had Amigo in, combed out and brushed to the point that he was almost glowing. He was beautiful. First of all they decided he had to be taller than what we said. I don't have a measuring stick but told them he had qualified for the 14.2hh and under classes. It didn't make a difference. They looked around the barn and ask prices on different horses. I had a chocolate filly that was a yearling that I priced really too cheap. Nope that was too much. So by the time they were looking at the weanling colts I price them at a price that was ridiculously low. Nope that was too much and didn't I have anything cheaper.

I call them tire kickers. Privately of course. They just wanted to come and look around. See what I had for sale and leave without a horse. They never were serious about buying a horse from me or they thought they could run on a well broke trail horse CHEAP. I love the ads on Craigs List. They go something like this. "I need a well broke trail horse. I want a chocolate with white mane and tail gelding. Must be 16hh. It has to be 9 years old and gentle enough to put children on. I only have $500 to spend but would prefer to have registration papers to be able to show if I decide to go that direction." Sound familiar. We all have experience tire kickers. I know all stables and farms have plenty of them.

Thinking of my experiences at the Van Bert's barn I know how to be gracious to tire kickers. I know it is never a wasted moment to be gracious to visitors. One never knows when someone will decide they will buy instead of being a looker. Or that they will go home and mention that Whispering Oaks Farm has really nice horses. Anyway my Granny who was really the smartest Old Lady I ever knew told me you could catch more flies with honey than vinegar.

How does one arrive at a price for a horse. It is really a hard question to answer. So the only way I know to price a horse is what it will cost me to replace it. How well trained is the horse. What is the breeding behind her? What if no one wants to buy it at the price I put on it. Would I hate to have to keep it. I had to answer all these questions when I started to price WOF Ann's Mt Treasure. Annie is the gray filly under saddle pictured above. Because of her color she draws a lot of attention. I have had people who ask for a price. I have made the decision and I am sticking by it. She is a wonderful horse and well worth what I am asking. She is the High Point winner for the 2010 show season in conformations. She is already showing a lot of promise under saddle. On the farm here we have watched her move at freedom in play and have gotten a glimpse into her heart.

Every once in awhile I will get an email from a friend that talks about the value of a woman. It usually asks if the reader knows the value we have as a woman. Something seemed off with that question. But to read on it enumerates the things women do that gives them the value they have. Have you ever really thought about your worth as a woman or as a man. How does one put a price on their worth. Is it your job and your value on the work marketplace that determines your value? Is it your value as a parent? A spouse? Is it your value as a sister or brother? Is it your value as a person who is a teacher, a Bible study teacher or a Preacher.

Although all those things give your life value as you live and serve in your work, home or in your community it is not your real value. Let me answer the question oF your worth and my worth. This came to me as I was hanging my clean curtains of all things. I don't know why. It just may be that God wanted to reveal this to me at that time. I realized I have a high value because Jesus died for me. He shed his precious blood to save me from having to suffer in hell for all eternity.

I am reading the book that George W Bush recently wrote. I am very interested in the section on how he came to a decision on the question of federal funding for stem cell research. He was thoughtful. He did research. He talked to many people including the Pope John Paul II about ethics and science and read every bit of information that was at his disposal. He was challenged between what is ethical and what could be used to relieve human suffering as a result of stem cell research. His problem with stem cell research is that human embryos would be destroyed to do the research.

You can read his book if you want to know all the finer details. You may remember that he announced that he would allow federal funding for embryo research but only on the lines that had been already started and on the embryos that had already been destroyed to do it. He would not allow funding to destroy more embryos because they were human life. To illustrate how he felt on the subject he had several "Snow flake children" present for the signing. Snow flake children are children that have been matured to a full term baby by implanting a frozen embryo into a woman to carry someone else's baby as if it were her naturally conceived child. The couple has "adopted" that embryo.

President Bush had to make a decision none of us will ever have to make. But he knows the worth of human life. He knows that Jesus who died for him died for all of man kind and whatever worth we have is the result of the sacrifice that Jesus made for us and the price he paid with his precious blood.

May God bless and keep you in his loving care.

Regards

Mary

For God so loved the world, he gave his only begotten son that who so ever should believe on him should not perish but have everlasting life.

John 3: 16

Horses and Snow

The horses are all enjoying the fresh snow but none are enjoying it any more than my chocolate palomino, Dixie Belle. Dixie is a three year old and has been under saddle for several months. She is tall but still a growing girl so she is getting some time off. In the meanwhile, Flair for Fury, Rockin Andi and Ann's Mt Treasure have all gone back to work.

Middle left is Ann's Mt Treasure who has only been under saddle for a few weeks. She is doing really well under Brandon's skilled hands. To the right is her big sister, Flair for Fury who will be going into her 4th show season and second under saddle. They are both out of Rebel's Rock's Ann. Meanwhile back at the farm the horses are enjoying the snow.

When I worked at the post office in Prospect Ky, I was a Sales and Service Associate (fancy name for a window clerk). I didn't get paid more, I was just given a fancier title. I used to stand at my station when I wasn't waiting on customers and watch the snow fall on days like yesterday. I thought how beautiful the snow would be if I were sitting in the safety of my home watching it fall through the window without thoughts of driving home on slick roads with other drivers that seemed reckless to me.

Yesterday I was sitting in the sun room with Bob and Natalie watching the snow fall and it was really beautiful. There is something about snow (when one doesn't have to drive in it) that is peaceful. It may be the silence of the snow and everything out doors when it is falling. Yesterday the wind was still and the air was cold and all was silent. It was a storybook day.

This morning when we let the horses out that had been in the barn all night it was a beautiful sight. I snapped pictures until my camera card was totally full. Dixie was running and really putting on a show. The other horses were running too just for the sheer joy of the snow and life in general. The horses that had been in overnight had just been given a little grain and they were ready to play. Bob sometimes says the grain to them is like a good cup of coffee to us. They do seem to enjoy the grain as much as I do my first cup of coffee in the morning.

Tonight they were all eager to get to their feed buckets. They could hardly wait to get into the barn and then as they waited for us to bring feed to them, they were restless. Some do a tap dance on the concrete. Satin likes to paw the floor while she waits impatiently for what she knows is coming.

Dixie was at first skeptical of what we were putting in her bucket hanging on the fence but she has now learned it is pretty good so she also is impatient. My newest mare, Dock's Darling (a Rocky Dock mare) is not sure of what is going on in her life. Although she has been ridden and certified, she has not had a lot of handling. She is a big beautiful chocolate mare with a flaxen mane and tail. She has most recently been turned out with my stallion, S C Code of Honor, and is pronounced safely in foal to him. I know she misses him and is not sure of what is going on in her life right now.

Bob has not gained her trust yet. She knows we have provided for her. We give her good hay, grain 2x a day and all the water she needs to satisfy her thirst. She gets to go out to the field with the other horses where there is a big pile of hay to satisfy the need she has for forage to stay warm and maintain her body weight. She can run at will or lay down and roll. At night she stays in a stall with an ample amount of hay to get her through the night. She gets petted and made over. Yet she is suspicious that maybe it is some kind of trick.

She sees us providing amply for her but yet she has not given her heart to us.

I see people like that. God has provided for them so generously but in their pride they think they have done it all themselves. Perhaps that mare thinks that because she is there she has found the grain and hay on her own. I sometimes fall into that trap. I get to thinking I am smarter than I really am and that I have done something special and extraordinary. But then I snap back to reality and realize that it is God blessing me and I have done nothing special. Whatever I am, what ever I have is gifts from God.

I know I wrote about this yesterday but I just can't help thinking about God's goodness and how he has blessed me so generously. I can't help but think who am I that God even takes notice of me. I am just an average person but whatever talent I have or what ever good I accomplish I owe to him.

So I want to leave you with this thought tonight. Do you count your blessings? Do you think about from where those blessings come? We are all blessed. Even the poorest among us live lives that most of the rest of the world can't imagine. I consider myself blessed that I was born in the United States to Lucy and Frank Rogers on a farm close to Taylorsville. I am blessed to live in a country full of opportunity. I am blessed that I can go to church, read my Bible and live in a house that is warm in the winter and cool in the summer.

I am blessed to call all of you friends and loved ones and I pray God will bless and keep you in his loving care.


Regards,

Mary

As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you.

Isaiah 66: 13

My Mattress Was In the Middle of a Busy Highway

The first picture in this series is of WOF Mike's Rhythm and Blue. He is out of a Storm Warning mare and by Blue on Black. His sire was the UMH high money winner for the 2010 show season. Blue on Black was sired by Blue Man McGuire.

The second picture is of WOF's Rockin Andi. Andi was second place high point winner in the 2010 Country Trail Pleasure Classes

The third picture is a really nice colt out of WOF's Once a Hobo and sired by Sudden Impact. His name if WOF Saga of Snowy River. The two colts are yearling colts and along with a Venture's Black Fury colt are spending the winter at Whispering Oaks Farm where they were foaled last spring. All are for sale. Saga won blue the first time he participated in a Weanling Conformation class.

I just can't seem to help bragging on my horses but then there is a lot for which to be proud. God made them so special. They along with everything you and I have really belongs to God and He has blessed us by giving it to our care for our use.

I have been truly blessed by owning some of the most beautiful well bred Rocky Mountain Horses in the world. I was blessed to have received two High Point awards for CGH Flair for Fury and WOF Ann's Mt Treasure. Rockin Andi shown in the picture above was 2nd to Flair for the High Point award as presented at the UMH Awards Banquet last week end. Congratulations to the planners. Judy and the UMH board and all who was involved in the planning did a wonderful job getting it together. The dinner was really delicious and all aspects of the evening was really special.

My congratulations to all the High Point Award winners. There is too many to name and I would surely leave someone out. They are all important awards to competitors. I personally treasure every ribbon and recognition my horses receive but I am also glad to be able to congratulate all the other owners of the fine horses in our breed.

Having said all that now to get to the title of my blog tonight. I went shopping for mattresses for my two beds. I went to every place around Louisville looking for the mattress that would suit me at the price I was willing to pay. I looked for a long time. I did finally find the mattresses I wanted in Louisville. I didn't want to pay for delivery. After all I did have a pickup truck on which I could haul a set of bedding. So I bought the two sets.

They did not have the mattress sets in their store but I was told they would be in by the end of the week. I made arrangements to pick up one set on Sunday after Church and the second set on Monday after work. I was excited on Sunday when I got there. I was already feeling myself sleeping on the set I had bought for my bed.

I knew the sales clerk was somewhat dingy but I really didn't know just how dingy she was until I went to pick up the mattress sets. I had already told her that I would get one set that day and the other set the next day. I knew I could get one set secured where I wouldn't have any trouble getting it home.

But no.......... SHE INSISTED that I could haul both sets home on one trip. So despite my objections and serious doubts she and another clerk set about loading the two mattress and box spring sets. It didn't look very secure but while she sat on a chair behind the store and talked and smoked the other clerk was tying the bedding onto the truck. The clerk kept telling me all about her experience tying knots and how she knew just how to do it while her partner was busy tying . Of course she on the other hand was still talking and smoking.

I still had doubts about my load when I finally pulled out of the store lot amidst assurances that my load was as secure as a baby in it's mama's arms. I turned on to Hurstbourne Lane which is one of the busiest 4 lane highways in the city. I had no sooner gotten out into traffic before the top box springs blew off into the middle of the road. In other words, Momma dropped the baby.

I got out of my truck and by that time the man in the vehicle behind me was already out to give me a helping hand. We got the springs back on and he tied it more securely and after thanking him I got back into my truck and headed on toward home praying all would be well now.

I had no sooner turned onto Taylorsville Road (also a very busy road) until the box springs was once again in the road. I once again got out of the truck and was glad to see a Jeffersontown Policeman was already stopped behind me. He surely would be helpful. But no. Because of liability he could not help me load the mattress. He couldn't even help me pull it out of the road. So here I am yanking and pulling on the box springs trying to drag it out of the highway as one of our finest stood there watching me.

He was trying to be helpful and insisted he must call this mattress store and let them deliver the bedding for me. I could not persuade him to not call so while he was calling them I put in a call to my son-in-law Mike. Mike came to my rescue about the time the dingy woman from the mattress store got there.

She was less help that time that she had been at the store. She once again pulled out her cigarettes and lite one up as Mike and I pulled the springs back on the truck. Mike set about tying them on while she was telling him how unreasonable I had been in wanting to haul both sets home on one load. She explained to him that she had tried unsuccessfully to talk me out of hauling them both home at the same time.

Mike got my load tied down in a way that I was sure was going to stay and she insisted she would follow me home to make sure I got there alright. Mike told her very firmly that he would be following me home and her assistance was not needed. And Mike followed me several miles to make sure I would be alright. We stopped on the side of the road so I could hug him and thank him from the bottom of my heart before he departed to return to work.

That is why for a long time my daughter answered the phone "Thank you for calling the damsel in distress hot line. What is your emergency today." I often call Mike on other matters but start the conversation with "Mike, I am on I-64 and my mattress is laying on the road in the middle lane. How long will it take you to get here."

Our distresses is not usually about a mattress in the middle of a busy interstate highway. They can be a lot more serious than that and can't be fixed by a son-in-law that is so good and kind and loving that he will leave work to help. We can always ask for help from the God who created the whole universe. He knows the next sentence I am going to write before I know it myself. He knows how you will receive this blog. He already knows if you will laugh at my story as I have often laughed about it.

It is a great comfort to me to know that God knows all about me. The psalmist said it best. "What is man that God should be mindful of him" God created the moon and the stars. He knows how many grains of sand is on all the beaches of the world. He knows every cell in your body and every hair on your head. The Bible tells us that God has the hair on each head numbered. Isn't it amazing? He knows all the stars in the sky. He has them numbered too. We can't even count what we can see.

My God is an awesome God. I pray each of you know God and have accepted Jesus as your Savior. You can be no more secure that placing your faith in Him and Him alone. And when something worse happens to you than a mattress in the road, He will be there to comfort you and lead and guide you to safety.

May God bless and keep you in His loving care.

Regards

Mary

OH! I Think I Broke My.....................

WOF Saga of Snowy River was a blue ribbon winner the first time he was in the show ring. He is now a yearling and still looking good. We can't set him up like S T did but he is looking pretty good anyway.

The first picture is a Venture's Black Fury baby born on our farm last year. His name is Duh Polish Fury in honor of our family name. (Lipginski) We are poking fun at ourselves.

I often write about things that pokes fun at myself. Someone once told me that their life wasn't as much fun or as interesting as mine. If you don't believe that your life is interesting and fun, open your eyes. Funny things happen every day all around you. All you have to do is look around and quit taking yourself so seriously.

Someone once said, "Life is too important to be taken seriously." I believe that Oscar Wilde was the one who said that. We can get so caught up in our self importance and worry so much about what everyone else thinks of us we can't see the humours side of life. It is liberating to let go and laugh at one's self.

This winter has been a bear with the snow and ice we have had. I am almost 69 years old and after breaking my arm this past year, I have tried to be careful not to repeat the experience. So I have stepped very carefully. I had been very successful until one Sunday just before Christmas. One of my weanlings had a bad cough and a very runny nose. There was really nasty stuff coming from his nose and I knew he needed the vet.

The vet came out and checked Little Fury and found he had pneumonia. He gave him some shots with the instructions that I was to continue to give him shots for the next week. He then ask if I still had penicillin. I started into the barn to look in the refrigerator and didn't watch my step and down I went. It hurt a little but I wasn't willing to admit that anything was injured except my ego.

I instantly thought back to a winter when Bill and I first got married. My brother Bob was about 12 years old. The ice froze thick on the lake on the farm that year. It finally got thick enough to trust it to ice skate on. We were skating around on the lake and having a barrel of fun. We weren't good skaters but we were having fun anyway. My sister and brother-in-law were there with their children and we were all laughing at ourselves and each other and having a great time in general.

Bob lost his balance and fell on the ice. He got up and said "Oh, I think I broke my........yo yo." He reached back in his pocket and pulled his yo yo out and tested it out. He threw it down and pulled it up several times and finally concluded his yo yo had survived the fall.

So now when some one falls we ask, "Did you break your yo yo." Or announce "Oh I think I broke my yo yo." Or "Oh, I hope I didn't break my yo yo." We have had a lot of fun with Bob over his yo yo as you might surmise.

We all had a lot of fun together as we joined each other for family Christmases, Thanksgivings and Sunday dinner. Then one day things changed and it all got very serious.

Our mother got sick. She had been teaching school several years by then. She was a kind wonderful woman whose children loved her dearly. The ones in the class room and at home. The doctor discovered a grapefruit size growth on one of her ovaries. The surgery went well and she recovered pretty quickly. She was still only 60 years old. Her recovery seemed to be on track when my Uncle died suddenly. He and my dad had been life long partners in their farming operation. My uncle had never married. I grew up with him being very close and a very near and dear presence in our lives.. We had barely gotten over the shock of his passing when it was apparent that our Mom wasn't doing very well.

What we feared was that this would be the last Christmas we would have with her and it was.

She was in the hospital again and the doctors told us the bad news. Her cancer had returned and had spread over her body very quickly. We knew it was just a matter of time when we would lose her too. That happened less than eight months after we buried my uncle. So we were once again grieving someone near and dear to us. It seemed our family never really recovered from our loss. She was the pin that kept the family together.

My daddy was a wonderful man but it was our mother who kept things working smoothly. It was our mother that kept the pot from boiling over. My family is made up of strong personalities. I bet your is too.

We all have different personalities. Sometimes things can get tense in a family with many members and so many personalities.

So what can we do? Well I tell you what we do. We can forgive each other whether it is a family member or a friend or an aquaintence that has wronged us. Some people seem to feel a need to go out of the way to make life unpleasant for others. I can't imagine what in their lives have made them so miserable as to want to hurt others.

So we forgive. And Jesus said we should forgive seventy times seven if necessary. I cringe when I hear some one say they will never forgive someone for what they did. Or that they hate someone.

Forgiveness is such an important part of the Christian life. It is a serious matter to me that Jesus said we should forgive each other even as He has forgiven us. I did more to cause him to suffer on the cross that anyone has caused me to suffer. How can I then go to Jesus and ask him to forgive me when I won't forgive others whom I think have wronged me?

You know God has forgiven you too. Today I ask you, is there someone you also need to forgive? A grudge is a terribly heavy burden to carry.

May God bless and keep you in his tender loving care.

Regards

Mary

Flair for Fury

OK I am frustrated. I uploaded a picture of Flair and I don't know where it went. It was a beautiful picture of her in the show ring with S T on board in an under saddle class this past show season.

This is about Flair and me and our trail ride. We finally caught a good day to ride this past week.
Leigh was here and she wanted to ride Velvet. Velvet is her favorite horse right now. She canters across the field with Leigh "in the irons" as they say at the shows. I had never been on Flair for Fury but I was told that she was my kind of horse.

As if there was an explanation needed, Bob went on to tell me how easy to ride she is and just how laid back and sweet. I got on her and rode her in the round pen while everyone else was getting their horses ready to ride. She wasn't real fond of riding in there because we had pulled shoes for the winter and there were a lot of rocks that had not been smoothed down enough.

I started to get a feel for her and found that she is very laid back. To the point of being a little lazy. Yes she is my kind of horse. Unlike J R that has a stubborn streak, Flair is a willing filly. I did have to urge her on some in the round pen but out in the open she was really easy to ride.

We rode up through the fields and down in the woods. I sometimes get uneasy in the woods because J R will get a little eager to go down the hills and he is not careful to pick his way along the trail. If you don't watch him he will scrub legs against trees. He pretty much has to be ridden all the time. He is a gentle soul and will not do anything really stupid but he likes to test the rider once in awhile.

I remember when I was trying to get comfortable riding again after some spills, we were riding in the woods. I like to follow instead of lead and Bob had ridden across a creek. I followed and when we turned to cross the creek again, J R started doing little crow hops. It scared me. I wasn't expecting him to do it. So he had one over on me. He did it several times to me after that and I was totally frustrated. I was too scared to do what I needed to do to show him I was the herd leader in our little herd of two.

One day we were riding in the bottoms along the river and he decided he would do his little crow hops. He made me think he was going to rear up. I knew in my head he was too lazy but my heart was not convinced. And so it went with my riding. Some days I was ok and others I was almost terrified.

Then came May 28, 2010. I was not on a horse. I was leading one of my weanlings and I fell and broke my arm. It took me several months to heal and all the time the surgeon who operated on me was telling me to stay off of the horses. I was ok with that. I finally got to get back on in October. I started riding J R again and I found that I wasn't afraid anymore. If J R wanted to run down the hill, I was able to hold him back. I made him understand what walk meant. If he wanted to crow hop, I made his feet move. If he wanted to eat, I wouldn't let him put his head down while I was on him. He started being more obedient. I in turn got more at ease on him.

One day I decided to ride a mare, Rocky Top Rebel. Rebel is bred and she is not a happy pregnant mare. But it was early on when I rode her. I don't ride her now. She is not due until May but she is a very unhappy pregnant mare.

So the last time I rode a horse was last week and I rode Flair for Fury. Flair is two years old. She has had ten months of training. S T rode her in all the shows last season and she hardly knew what it meant if she was in a class and didn't go to the winner's circle. She won the prestigious Breeder's Cup for two year olds. Breeder's Cup for a two year old is both under saddle and under halter in the same class. The horse displays her or (his) talent with a rider. The saddle is then pulled off and she is shown in hand. It takes a good horse to win. Some horses do well under saddle and then come up short in conformation. So Flair is a good two year old without a doubt.

Not every two year old, even in the Rocky Mountain breed is right for a rider like I am. But Flair is a good horse for me. She proved it to me last week.

She didn't feel like she was going to take off and run with me to stay up with the other horses. I like my horse to walk. If she did feel like she was going to go a little faster than I wanted her to go I pulled her up a little and she immediately dropped back down to a walk. The woods was a beautiful experience. There is a lot of down hill trails and Flair so carefully picked her way down the trails. She didn't always walk on the exact same path the other horses walked on. The trails were muddy because of the rain we have had. She would often walk to the side of where the other horses had walked. She was avoiding the mud and the slippery slopes.

So on the first ride on Flair for Fury (she is out of Rebel's Rocks Ann and by Venture's Black Fury) I have come to trust her because I can see she is trustworthy. Isn't that the way our walk with Jesus is.

I learned to trust Jesus when I opened my heart to him and told him I needed him because I couldn't do this thing called life by myself. First of all, I needed him to save me. I couldn't do enough good to save myself. After all he had already paid the price for my salvation. He died on the cross for me and you. His precious blood paid our sin debt. He now leads us on our life's path.

Sometimes we do walk off the path and try to go it on our own. But he comes looking for us like in the parable of the lost sheep. There were 99 sheep safely in the fold. But one was lost. The shepherd went to look for that one. Like sheep we go astray. We don't have to try to find our way back, we just need to call out to Jesus to help us.

Like Flair who chose the safest path for us Friday, Jesus will lead us on the safest path. He may take us places we wouldn't choose ourselves but he is showing us the best way home. When we are in his care we can't be any where that we are safer.

When Mike was in Iraq, my customers in the post office would ask me how I slept at night. First, I couldn't take care of Mike in Iraq That would be ridiculous if I tried. But there was one who was with him at all times. He was in God's hands. And all that is the safest place anyone can be. So that is how I could lay down and not lay awake all night worrying. I prayed of course. I would have rather he was back in the states but I could not do anything about that. But I knew with God's care he was in good hands.

I am praying you are safely in the Good Shepherd's fold tonight. I pray you are walking the path beside Jesus and following his will for your life. If you have wondered off the path, ask him to lead you back to safety. It is his good pleasure to walk with each of us.

May God bless and keep you in his loving care and may your new year be abundantly provided for by the one who died for us all, Jesus Christ.

Regards,

Mary

"And Jesus said unto them 'What man of you having an hundred sheep; if he lose one of them doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness and go after that which is lost, until he finds it.'"

Luke 15: 4