Well Done Good And Faithful Servant

David Wilkerson , one of evangelical Christianity's most prominent voices, was killed in an east Texas car accident yesterday.

I will miss him. There was a time, however, when I couldn't stand him and actually walked out of one of his appearances in Tampa, Florida. Over the years we both tempered.

Wilkerson told it like it was. He never wanted to be "a prophet of doom" and lamented about this throughout his lifetime. He was faithful, however, in speaking the truth as he saw it and as he felt directed by his God.

The skinny, naive preacher was best known for his book, The Cross And The Switchblade which was made in to a pretty lame Pat Boone movie.


After the book hoopla died down Wilkerson continued to serve in the ministry his entire life.

There was never any scandal associated with him. He didn't frequent prostitutes on the sly. He wasn't a closet drinker. He didn't live in a 10.8 million dollar mansion, have a personal masseuse or cheat on his wife. He didn't spend between $10,000. and $30,000. for tailored suits.

He NEVER asked for money for the ministry. Nor did he "give away" relics from the Holy Land or bookmarks or statues for a "donation" to his ministry. If it was God's ministry then God would provide.

Reverend Wilkerson spent his lifetime working with drug addicts and in his later years widows and orphans.

Over the years he mellowed a lot but he never wavered from his Christian beliefs. A secular survey recently presented statistics to support that 90% of Christians surveyed lived no differently from those who consider themselves non-Christians with the exception of divorce and bankruptcy which was higher among the Christian population.

Reverend Wilkerson would have been amongst the 10%. He was different.

At 5:01 AM on Wednesday David Wilkerson sent the following e-mail out. At 1:00 PM he was dead.

"To those going through the valley and shadow of death, hear this word: Weeping will last through some dark, awful nights” and in that darkness you will soon hear the Father whisper, I am with you. I cannot tell you why right now, but one day it will all make sense. You will see it was all part of my plan. It was no accident. It was no failure on your part. Hold fast. Let me embrace you in your hour of pain. Beloved, God has never failed to act but in goodness and love. When all means fail ”his love prevails. Hold fast to your faith. Stand fast in his Word."

Jeremiah 45:5 says "I will give your life to you as a prize in all places, wherever you go."

For David this now includes, Heavenly places.

Well done, David!

Well done.

He Is Risen

Mark 16:1-8
When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus' body. Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb and they asked each other, "Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?"

But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed.

"Don't be alarmed," he said. "You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter, 'He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you. "

The Teenager walks by pauses to listen and states, "Now that is beautiful."

I agree. It's one of my favorite songs written by Annie Herring in 1971.

This is also one of my favorite passages because of this: "But go, tell his disciples and Peter"

...and Peter...

Why did he specifically mention Peter? After all wasn't he also a disciple?

Could it have been that Peter had just denied Christ 3 times and was despondent because of his own weakness and act of betrayal? How could he have denied his dearest friend and teacher at his friends most horrific hour?

“And Peter remembered the word of Jesus, which said unto him, Before the cock crows, thou shalt deny me thrice. And he went out, and wept bitterly.”

Bitter weeping. We've all been there. Some of us are there now.

Sometimes we forget about grace. Sometimes we forget about mercy. Sometimes we forget about the purity of Godly love directed towards us. Sometimes we need a special invitation to remind us.

Like Peter did.

Let the miracle of Easter Sunday remind us of these truths and quicken our hearts with joy.

Happy Easter dear friends!

Trampoline Thursday

Here's how we've "adjusted" our lifestyle in the past week since the arrival of our trampoline:

1.) We drink one 8 oz glass of water before each meal. It's an old trick for dieters and has some validity. The Teenager needs extra water anyway because of the seizure medications she has to take. They are metabolized in the liver and not without major side effects but a necessity to prevent her grand mal seizures.

2.) I've stocked up again on Weight Watchers meals for those moments when I am crazy busy and tempted to drive through a fast food establishment. Someone complained about the sodium content of a Weight Watchers meal so I did a little research.

The teenagers favorite Happy Meal consists of a cheeseburger, small fries and 1% low fat chocolate milk. This equals: 1060 mg Sodium, 700 calories, 25 g fat,
9 g saturated fat, 1 g trans fat, 88 carbs, 31 g sugar

The Teenagers favorite Weight Watchers meal. This equals 700mg sodium, 270 calories, 12.5 g saturated fat, 0 trans fat, 35 carbs, and 8 g of sugar.

This may not be ideal but it is a better substitute to utilize when we are pressed for time and or low on energy. After all we are all over worked and over stressed in this society. I don't expect to juggle my brutal schedule and prepare, cook and serve organic, low fat meals 3 times a day. I mean get real.

What infuriates me is that absolutely everything in our society's media blitzing is geared towards weight gain. Take those thousands of commercials enticing children with sugary cereals and fat laden fast food meals. If I remember correctly the average child sees 10,000 of them a year. When shown a picture of Jesus in the documentary, Super Size Me, not one 5 year old could identify Jesus.

When shown a picture of Ronald McDonald, however, all of the 5 year olds knew who he was, where he came from and where they had seen him.

Evil, evil clown.

And cost?

When you can fill your child's tummy up from the dollar menu and a local drive-thru for less than the price of one bunch of broccoli it's a no brainier for lower income families.

It's a crime perpetuated by greed. And you all know how I feel about food industry greed. GMO's. High Fructose corn syrup...yada...yada...yada...

Veering off my rant now to:

3.) The Teenager jumps on the mini trampoline before each meal. This takes tremendous discipline on my part as I am her head coach and cheerleader. Ideally you should jump 30 minutes a day but The Teenager has difficulty making it 5 minutes without tremendous persuasion and cheering. We break it down to 5 minutes before each meal as exercising before meals is a proven fat reducer. The five minutes is not a solid 5 minutes either as she does a lot of starts and stops and complaining.

"I'm tired!"

"I can't do this!"

"My heart! I'm having a heart attack!""

"My Liver! My liver!" Yeah. I'm fairly certain your liver is on your right side, sweetie not your left side.

On Sunday though I had to laugh out loud at one of her complaints.

"These things* are flapping like a couple of penguins!"

* Please don't ask what "these things" are.

Mental note: Buy some tight fitting sports bras at Wal-Mart next week.

This is my cue to chime in with what little enthusiasm i can muster while dinner is burning downstairs:

Everywhere you go-oh
People want to know-oh
Who you are
so I tell them...
you are The Teenager,
The mighty, mighty Teenager...
Jump!
Jump!
Jump!

We also throw in as many 5 minutes jump fests that we can during the day between meals.

Keep in mind the Teenager has kept the 10 lbs off that the local hospital nutritionist helped us lose for over one year but has never gone beyond the 10 pound mark. The seizure medication induced lethargy is only partly to blame.

Ideal weight for The Teenagers height: 90lbs (the nutritionist and I both laughed ourselves silly over this number.)

Realistic target weight per pediatric nutritionist: 115lbs

Last Thursday's weight: 138 1/2 lbs.

Today's weight: 137 lbs

Total weight loss in 7 days: 1 1/2 lbs

Jump!

And while we're on Van Halen....how totally revolting is David Lee Roth in this video? He's like a cross between Rainbow Dash and Buffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs.

Buffalo Bill

David

I'm completely frightened.

Almost as frightened as i am of that evil, evil clown...

Dad Life

We all need to laugh more often. This will help.

A fine tribute to all of the dads out there.

Trampoline Thursday

Actually, it's Friday but I didn't feel well enough last night to put together the new trampoline or post. This afternoon I rallied from the bed, put The Teenagers trampoline together and she's in her upstairs room as we speak shaking the ceiling.

A clients mom recently purchased a trampoline after a bug much like I am experiencing when her doctor read her the riot act about losing weight for health reasons.

She informed me she had to buy a trampoline that held 300lbs. Yes, she is a tad overweight.

Every time I go to her home I am shocked when she opens the front door to let me in.

In 2 weeks she lost 30lbs jumping 30 minutes a day although she had to rearrange her furniture. "I kept hitting my head on the shelf when I was jumping." She is also eating more fruits and vegetables but that's the extent of her exercise program.

The Teenager went from severe organic/non-organic failure to thrive combo as an infant and toddler to obesity when she hit the "tweens." She is only 4'8" so the poor child doesn't have much lee way. At 5"8" i can pack in a lot of Dunkin Donuts without showing it. At 4'8" it shows up immediately on The Teenager.

We've been working with a nutritionist and she has dropped 10lbs and kept it off for over a year. With the onset of seizures, however, and the anit-epileptic medication she has lost her desire to swim or exercise. For the first year after diagnosis she has been sleepy,lethargic and napping. The teenager has always been an individual who can't shed the pounds by diet alone. She has to exercise as well.

Throw in cerebral palsy, severe patella alta and flat feet and weight loss becomes even more complex.

Inspired by my clients mom I began researching the trampoline and found interesting articles like this one.

I found a trampoline superstore.

Yes, seriously that is one thing you can always count on in the USA. A superstore for everything. The Genius found an on line coupon code that expired 12/10 but worked. We got a sweet deal on the trampoline..

Trampoline Thursday is going to be our online diary. Feel free to ignore Thursdays!

Today's weight at Publix: 138 1/2 lbs.

Get Angry. Please.

Born2fly is a worthwhile teaching project for young children all over the world and in the USA to help prevent them becoming victims of the sex trade industry. Yes, right here in the USA. It's the 3rd biggest industry in our country. And after all, where do most Americans go to access children for sex? Children as young as 4? Thailand? Russia? South America?

No. They go right here in the USA.

It's time to dig our heads out of the sand. Having a friend long ago who was sold at the age of 4 as a sex slave in Southeast Asia I've seen first hand the devastation it causes.

One woman said, "I don't want to know."

She will be held accountable. We all will if we do nothing.

The film sites Proverbs 24:11. It reads, "Rescue those who are unjustly sentenced to die; save them as they stagger to their death."

If nothing else pass this information regarding Born2fly along.

Visit this blog.

And go see this film if it premiers near you.

No child is safe. No, not even yours.

Seriously Sick

Last week I was fighting off a sinus infection. This week I am having trouble breathing.

In view of the large number of people who have died in my life lately from "flu" bugs I sought medical attention after 6 days instead of my usual 6 weeks. Good thing I did as it has turned out to be bacterial and not viral. My upper airway had become edematous and painful. Antibiotics and a nice cough syrup with codeine were prescribed so I wouldn't do any further damage to my airway while hacking up chunks of lung.

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

I've spent the last two days sleeping in my "crib."

zzzzzzzzsnortzzzzzzzz

No work = no money. A colossal waste of time as I don't feel like sewing, crafting, or doing anything but sleeping.

Friends have been helping with the school run, and bringing food from afar. Thank you friends!

zzzzzzzsnortzzzzzzzzz

Today I ventured out briefly to pick The Boy up at school. Since I was early I stopped at a nearby thrift store and found this very old, chippy, pedestal mirror. One is never too sick to thrift.


Yes, those are roses from the garden. I love the way they are reflected in the mirror. Unfortunately, I think I did some serious damage to my camera when I dropped it last week. I'm not sure why this ONE photo turned out but none of the others did.

Which is why you are looking...



at pictures from a recent trip to the zoo....



Where everyone seemed too tired to do much of anything....


about anything...



including The Teenager.

The End