Gustav...

We have friends working around Louisiana who were pulled off job sites this morning and sent home/evacuated. Our own southernmost counties were beginning this today as well we heard on the news. Yesterday they told the 2800 FEMA trailer families to leave first.

Granted, most folks aren't playing Rambo this time and trying to simply hunker-down and ride out the potential store moving across the waters of the Gulf. Evacuating ahead of time for some hurricanes proved to be unwarranted, but when they decided to stay, Katrina packed a punch no one was prepared for. I'm glad to see the State government moving in a more pro-active manner this time. With Katrina, while they say they had ample plans in place for such an emergency, communication lines were gone virtually immediately and that's how things fell (so far) apart. Not much a plan to my way of thinking...a huge storm hits and you have plans in place to make it alright and help folks, but you never think about what happens if there's no communication lines available? That's like waiting on a pending blizzard and not bringing a woodpile up from the back-40 to the cabin door. Just silly and poorly thought-out.

There were (are still, 3 years later...) communities that have not been reached for rebuilding. That should be something totally unacceptable for folks. But, it's not. No one hase really given much thought to Katrina since the first anniversary passed. Twenty-eight hundred FEMA trailer families....still? I don't understand that at all. Three years pass and there are still those living in FEMA trailers?

How does something like that happen in a country who touts prosperity as we do? We load families up after a disaster such as this and then walk off and forget about them? Worse yet -- we place them in formaldehyde-loaded trailers?

Because of chemical contamination, “it’s probably a good idea to get people out of trailers,” said Joseph Rich, a lawyer with the Lawyer’s Committee for Civil Rights Under Law in Washington. “But not at the expense of making them homeless.”

Gee...ya think? I'm sure some would argue that there are, among these trailer families, those who simply won't move on. Those who would prefer to live off the State until such time as they are forced to move on.

I imagine that's true in some cases. Some folks are like that. But still...these trailers aren't safe and that's been known for over a year now. There is no reason whatsoever for any family to still be living in them. The government could very easily move them to safer housing and finish the Katrina issue. It's been 3 years. You either take steps or you don't. I really think it's that simple.

Guess Big Brother can't be everywhere afterall, heh? Sad. We could have used him in this instance.

Our prayers go out to the counties under the watch of pending Gustav. May The Lord protect you and keep you safe. Please don't wait on the National Guard or some government group to come help you -- make your own plans and evacuate yourself.

Get your glow-in-the-dark meats and veggies!

Take Action – Don’t Irradiate Meat

From Food & Water Watch:

USDA officials under Agriculture Secretary Schafer are proposing irradiating beef carcasses in order to cover up the filth and contamination of E. Coli. Irradiation is just a band-aid solution for meat industry problems and could be harmful to consumers. Worst of all, the meat wouldn't have to be labeled as irradiated.

Find out more at the Food & Water Watch site.

And in more irradiation news, according to the New York Times, the FDA will allow producers to irradiate fresh spinach and iceberg lettuce, enough to kill e.coli and salmonella, a move not welcomed by groups like Food & Water Watch.

If you’re not familiar with food irradiation and the controversy surrounding it, please visit our Food Irradiation page for more information.

Ok...I do buy meats and such from the store. I am moving away from that more and more, which for right now mainly means changing our diets until we are better equipped here on the homestead.

The question for us is simple -- do I really want the government to slap a bandaid on my meat just to allow for questionable practices that have already proven to not work?

Don't know what your answer might be, but mine is a pretty loud, resounding NO.

Look at all the recalls we have out now. Look back over the past year. Look at the past several years. Nothing is safe anymore -- not our meat, not our animal feeds, not our vegetables. If it comes from the store, big money is behind it and it's just not going to be truly safe.

Some would argue that we've eaten store foods for generations and all has been just fine. I don't think that's the case at all and it a rather weak argument for plain ignorance of the facts. Look at the cancer rate in our society. Check out any illness rate between generations. Yes, our abilities of charting illness and recognizing it are better now than, say, in grandma's day, but still....it's a weak argument.

If you are content to follow the masses and eat grocery store foods, I'm certainly not going to judge you. I've been there...I'm still doing it so a small extent. My argument would be start taking a serious look at how you eat and what you eat and where it comes from. We have been raised in a society where convenience is more important and sought after than truly healthy. We pop a pill for this and that, whether its needed or not. We hit the doctor for every cough and sneeze looking for a quick cure and comfort. We want quick and we want easy without the slightest effort on our own part. We are sheep being led to slaughter slowly is what it amounts to..

Yeah, I know...someone oughtta' snatch up this soapbox. I get carried away from time to time. I don't eat as healthy as I know I need to. I a not teaching my children to form truly healthy eating habits either by my own example. But you kow what -- as far behind some organic nature-driven purists as I am, I am miles ahead of most folks out there. I have a brain and when I chooe to ignore the propoganda fed to me from big money government, I do pretty well.

Some of our Bible Studies...

We have a variety of ages here, so our Bible studies are a bit varied as well. The elders have a devotional they do, and they are working through The Joy of Obedience as well.

For 'regular' Bible study, we found the Church of Christ Bible curriculum free online. No, we are not Church of Christ (not that it matters, but we are more aligned with Independent Fundamental Baptist than anything else...but truly, we consider ourselves simply Bible-believing Christians. I don't care for church labels.)

I like this curriculum because 1) it's free. I like free. and 2) it is basic and rather non-denominational in nature so far. It's a basic reading of Scripture with fill-in-the-blank quizzes. Even the youngers can do this when we read aloud. I do print off any Calvary Chapel Children's Ministry Curriculum coloring pages and puzzles that go along with the lessons.

I want the Bible to be a part of their lives, not just a Sunday Social Club portion. I want it to mean something to them in every aspect of their life. I want to know they have the stories and verses of God in their hearts and minds no matter what they are doing in their day. Some folks know the Bible well enough...they just don't put any of it to daily use and don't find it 'practical' I think. They don't show the fruit of knowing The Lord or His Word at all in their daily lives. That is sad. I know I don't always shaow the best fruit I know I have, I allow for the flesh far too much in my day, but I try...my heart is working over-time to overcome the flesh I deal with. I certainly have a great many besetting sins, I'm ashamed to say. But I can get beyond them. The Lord says I can easily. I believe Him. I just need to stop being my own worst enemy.

That aside, here are some other resources we have here. We don't use them all the time, but I like having books around that have substance and purpose, kwim? I've wasted alot of my life reading basically useless things just for fun. I really want my children to enjoy reading, but at the same time I want them to redeem the time with items that put good things into their lives and minds (read: no silly romance or worldly fiction).

Men of The Bible, Ann Spangler & Robert Wolgemuth
Every Woman in The Bible, Sue & Larry Richards
Women of The Bible 52 Bible Studies, Jean E. Syswerda
Beautiful Girlhood, rev. by Karen Andreola
The Parables, Gary Inrig
Science and The Bible, Henry M. Morris
The Pursuit of Godly Seed, Denny Kenaston
Christian Family Living, John Coblentz
Remember Thy Creator, G. Richard Culp
Keep Yourself Pure
The Pilgrim's Progress
Foxe's Book of Martyrs
Homekeeping
Courtship That Glorifies God, John Coblentz
Looking at Myself, Before Loving Someone Else, John Coblentz
Timely talks with Teenagers, Daniel Kauffman
Dotrines of The Bible

We also have a lot of just plain good reading around here...
Pathway Readers
a growing collection of Rod & Staff books and Christian Light books
Little House on The Prairie series
Anne of Green Gables series
Heroes of History series from ywampublishing.com
several missionary stories
a handful of books by The Pearls (you either love them or you hate them. they entice very strong feelings...but I find so much in them I need as a parent raising arrows for The Lord's Army!)
A full set of G.A. Henty books...though they are all on CD from our Robinson Curriculum

I am always refining our library shelves here with good finds. Our local library, while in a college town, pretty much caters to the world's idea of good reading -- short sentences, little brain work required, mostly abridged types of fiction. We prefer whole books and autobiographies for our reading time. As these are not readily available around us, and being that we are out past rural here, I try to grow our own collection of good books.

What must-have books do you keep in your library? What titles do you feel are most important for your children to have, or for yourself to have, available? I'd love to hear about what sparks your interest!

What can you do on how little?

Hmmm...loaded question, I know.

What do I mean -- little land? little food? little money?

All of the above, I guess.

Say you have 2 acres of land, good zoning (meaning you can have animals and do what you wish). On this 2 acre patch you are wanting to set up homesteading. Maybe raise a beef cow or two, have a couple of hogs for processing, certainly chickens and maybe even a handful of rabbits.

You want room for the children and for family entertaining, of course. And there are 7 children in the mix.

So...how do you do it? Can you do it? Will it work?

Here's my thoughts...and they are not overly complete by any stretch...do chime in and give me ideas and share your experience!

Well, 2 acres isn't alot, but I do think it can be done. It all depends on how much you really want it to work. Chickens and rabbits are easy to start with and easiest for housing. Back north I'd build according to winter needs...something we can enclose for more indoor spacing during really cold, snowy, nasty weather. Rabbits are just as easy -- and let's not forget, prolific breeders -- so maybe just adding a room onto the end of the chicken coop to run a couple rows of cages.

Cows and pigs are moving into different territory. We have hogs. Pain in the rump roasts but oh-so delicious afterward. Not sure I'd care to have any more in the future, though. I am not convinced they are truly worth the aggravation yet. Still, pigs and cows can pasture together easily enough, but space? There isn't really alot with 2 acres, so we aren't necessarily looking at keeping them on pasture, so feed over winter...maybe raise them to butcher off before winter each year? Could be do-able, but really...I rather think the variety of animals on such a small space just isn't going to be easily achieved.

Garden and fruit space? Plenty of it, I think. My focus would be an awesome garden with more than enough food to go around, and lining that with fruit trees and bramble fruits. Then I'd look to those chickens and rabbits for our main food source. Maybe barter off some fresh chickens and rabbits for the occasional splurge of beef for dinner.

I just don't see the larger animals on the small space being cost effective. There won't be enough space to adequately rotate pasture areas and allow for regrowth. Dry-lots are doable, but not very animal friendly, and definitely not cost effective.

My personal thought (ya' knew I'd have at least one, right??). It ain't happening. Not such grand scale plans on such small scale land. It's a great size for a beginner homesteader, certainly, but I think it's setting the cart before the horse to plan on diving in head-first on this scale. Maybe I'm totally wrong (yes, it's been known to happen once or twice before...) but I think something on that scale will pretty much turn one off of homesteading. It's just too much, too fast.

What would I do, newbie from the city let's say, I've just bought my 2 acres and I'm getting itchy feet for homesteading? Garden and fruits, chickens and rabbits. Forget the cow and pigs for now. Plug every available penny into the 'land fund' kitty and pray for another few acres adjoining to open up. Or, start honing my skills now and save for that greener pasture down yonder road in a few years. I'd be learning all I could about canning, drying and preserving everything from that awesome garden and homestead orchard. I'd be changing my lifestyle to accommodate more chicken and rabbit, less burger and chops. I'd be starting on that homestead path of make if from scratch.

Use it up,
Wear it out,
Make it do
Or do without

That would become the family creed. Everything homemade from scratch, natural and moving in large strides toward self-sufficiency and complete God-reliance.

Then, one day, when I was no longer that newbie from the city with big plans I'd venture off to my real, true, forever patch of God's Green Earth. Fully armed with my homesteading skills and prepared to learn more skills...like raising the family beef cow and the mini herd of piggies (hmmm...would a group of pigs be a herd?). Maybe at that point I'd be ready to even raise some of my own grains for feed, too, or a bit of hay for winter storage.

What do you think?

Homeschool Goes On...

Ever had one of those mornings where school just sort of starts rather on its own?

I over-slept. Not that I've never slept beyond children rising and getting busy, but once in a while, it does happen.

I think I'm more 'thoughtful' of my husband's leaving this weekend for his new job than I care to admit.

He will be gone a good 12-18 months. He'll only be 6 hours away, but still...we've never really been apart for any serious length of time. He has gone to help on jobsites where he might be there 7-10 days...but 12-18 months??

I'm not really worried -- LOL, we're stout country folk here. No, let me rephrase myself -- we are stout backwoods, mountain-living, rural folk.


Think some sort of combination of Caroline Ingalls meets Olivia Walton meets Ma Kettle.

That would be us. The Ingalls-Walton-Kettle family. We are just the other side of rural out here on our mountain, but we have enough civilization around us to be comfortable. Town is about 13 miles down the mountain and over the highway. hey -- we're big time now -- we just got a Super Wal-Mart here.

But, I just haven't had a sound sleep all of this week now and today, it sort of caught up with me I guess. The children have morning tasks done aside from barn chores, and some are doing school without me.

Our schooling looks like this...on a good day...Rod & Staff books scattered along the harvest table we have. There is math, English, several Pathway Readers, the large KJV Bible and the big green Webster's Dictionary. The white board is ready with Bible verses for copy and memory work. Someone might be over in the living room, listening to a CD from Homeschool Radio Shows to give us a narrative later on. And the littles are coloring. That's their main contribution to a school day most of the time. They grab their ABC series and the crayons (ok, they are crayons only in the loosest of sense....how do you keep proper, intact crayons with so many oungers around?) and they begin creating masterpieces of school work for the day.

We have several read-aloud times during the day. Could be Considering God's Creation, or Mystery of History, our Heroes of History books, or some of our family reading time books...Little House on the Prairie series, Dear America or My America series, or any of our Rod & Staff story books we've been collecting.

Later today someone will have started a Daniel Boone DVD and most will be sitting in the living room. They might pick Christy, but usually they go for Daniel Boone...or one of the original Adventures of Robin Hood. We like that old time television stuff 'round here.

But...as I sit here, school is going on...crayons are all over, and one of the middles is reading a Pathway Reader while the youngers work on their math workbooks...one complaining because another is getting farther ahead.

This is a good morning. It's these days, when Mom might not be doing her part as she should and school just flows along regardless, that I sit back and get that warm, fuzzy, homeschool-y kind of feeling. Right now, public school would be nothing but arguments and paper fights and mayhem.

Don't get me wrong -- we have mayhem here too. Quite often.

That's why we live just on the other side of rural. That's where the Kettle side of the family comes into the mix!

The Christian Declaration of Independence

The Christian's Declaration Of Independence

Sanctify them through thy truth:
thy word is truth.
John 17:17

In Jesus Christ;
I am free from failure for the Bible says:
Php 4:13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

I am free from want for the Bible says:
Php 4:19 But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”

I am free from fear for the Bible says:
2 Tim. 1:7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

I am free from doubt for the Bible says:
Rom. 12:3 “For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.”

I am free from weakness, for the Bible says:
Ps 27:1 The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?

I am free from the power of satan, for the Bible says:
1Jo 4:4 Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.

I am free from defeat, for the Bible says:
2Co 2:14 Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place.

I am free from ignorance, for the Bible says:
1Co 1:30 But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption

I am free from sin, for the Bible says:
John 1:7 The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe.

I am free from worry, for the Bible says:
1Pe 5:7 Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.

I am free from bondage, for the Bible says:
2 Cor. 3:17 Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

I am free from condemnation, for the Bible says:
Rom. 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

About our headcovering practices...

LisaM asked about why our youngers wear coverings. I realize this isn't an overly 'common' practice, even among Christian, these days, but we fully believe that Scripture has called us to do so. It is being seen more and more among modern Christian families, but still...there is a long way to go to get truly back to the Bible standards all Christians once shared.

In a nutshell, we believe The Lord has led us to cover, according to His Word shared in 1 Corinthians 11. We believe our hair is given to us as our glory. Therefore, we choose not to cut off that glory, and keep our hair long. We wear coverings over our hair because we also believe this is contained in the same Scripture. We read that we are to be covered, as women, whenever praying or prophesying. As we are called to 'pray without ceasing' (1 Thess. 5:17), it just makes sense to us to be covered at all times.

For my older daughters, they wear a covering all the time, same as I do. My youngers, while not at an age of understanding or accountability so to speak, are growing up with dresses-only and headcoverings as their normal attire. It seems easier to me to not place them in both worlds...being allowed to dress in a manner that we will not allow later on. As Christians, we cannot live in both worlds and must choose which ppath we will follow. We cannot serve two masters. If my daughters are raised from the start to seek a modest dress and covering, the struggle of coming to it later, once the 'worldliness' has crept in, won't be there as strongly. It will simply be normal life to them.

So, we try to make headcoverings as easy and comfortable for them at a young age. As infants, it was easy -- kapp style. No one placed a denomination label on that at their young age. But now, as toddlers and young school-agers, there is a label based on the style of covering they wear. Our hanging veils just don't stay on active young ones with thinner hair as they do older ones, so we are trying to find something else.

In that same light, we believe that we are called to be a light to men (Matt 5:16) and to be a peculiar people (Tit. 2:14 and 1 Pet. 2:9). We are to be different than the unsaved, not only in heart, but in appearance.

We choose to go back to the gender roles that once dominated our society. Men were dressed like men and you had no doubts when you saw someone at a distance what gender they were. They were dressed differently. Woman were in dresses, never in pants. That was one of the main distinctions of amost every generation past. Every generation past, that is, until we began stepping off into modern feminism. WWII pops to mind as being one of the early movements that brought woman out of their norm and into the man's world, though I'm sure there are examples sprinkled here and there before this time as well . Some women continued along in that 'man's world' and things pretty much moved ahead from there to what we have now...virtually no distinction between the sexes at all. Everything is moving 'gender neutral' in our society today.

I don't want to be 'gender neutral'. I don't want my daughters...or my sons...to be 'gender neutral'. We are made differently and I want us to remain that way. I want us to be full of praises for the differences in our lives, not find some common ground between the two. Even in the animal kingdom you can see a lot of male and female differences in appearances. Boys are to be men, and girls are to be women. Not some fuzzy gray area in-between somewhere. Our sons dress just as modestly as our daughters do, and they maintain a distinction that is obvious to anyone. For us, personally, that shows up in hair length and design and in clothing styles. They wear simple pants and shirts; we weear dresses and coverings. Nothing form-fitting or revealing on either.

God sees the inner man, our heart. He judges us by what our heart contains. Man, however, cannot see our heart or inner man, and has only our outward appearance to base judgement on. Sure, outward appearances can be deceiving, but sometimes all people have is our outward appearance. Some people never get a chance to speak to us and get to know us, learning about our heart and our attitude, seeing a bit of our inner man.

I do want to make it clear that in no way do we see any of our decisions here are being connected to our Salvation. They aren't. These are merely 'tools' of our testimony, one that is personal and between ourselves and God. There is nothing we can do to ensure Salvation outside of believing on The Lord Jesus Christ and asking Him into our hearts, repenting of our sins and becoming a new creation unto The Lord. Works are just that...works. They are part of our Fruit, but not a deciding factor in our Salvation. We are known to man by our Fruit, and just in case someone never seeks an opportunity to truly know us, I pray that our appearance and choices in life will still shine the Light of Christ brightly to them.
Yes, I tend to get long-winded and ramble...sorry about that. It's just in my nature to be rather 'winded' with things. I hope this has offered something of an answer for you, LisaM, and anyone else who might be wondering :o)

Headcoverings on young children? Anyone?

Yes, we are a headcovering family. Yes, this is an old photo....August 2005, to be precise. And besides everyone being older now, we are missing Miss Emily in this photo. Goodness, I need to get a family picture done soon! We don't really do alot of pictures, but we need to. Either way...

We are a covering family. My problem is how to make it work on the youngers. In this photo, only our olders are wearing one. The other two daughters do wear them now, but Miss Emily is just 2 years old. It's rather difficult to keep a covering on her unless it's a kapp style, which tends to make folks think we are Mennonite.

Not that I have a serious problem with our being thought of as Mennonite -- really, just wearing modest clothing and a covering makes folks immediately think of Amish, Mennonite, Catholic or LDS -- but, truth in fact, we are not Mennonite or any of those other religions. I simply don't want to give someone the wrong impression.

Our coverings are a hanging veil style, not really connected with any particular religious group. Hanging veils don't really lend themselves easily to toddler heads, however. They slip and slide all over and just don't last long. Kapp styles, on the other hand, work perfectly, but do give off certain religious overtones.

So, what do I do? We believe it is easier to have the girls always wear coverings. Not simply when they reach an age of accountability, but as a normal part of their life. I just haven't hit upon the right covering yet.

Any suggestions?

Are you seeking The Crown without The Cross?

Who are we following? Where are we going? What do we truly value?

Have you thought about these things in relation to your Walk?

Alot of folks balk at the televangelists who cause scandal after scandal these days. They run their 'ministries' like a Wall Street executive. Funds are solicited, prayer requests from viewers are dealt with form letter replies, and nothing less than pyramid schemes make up what they offer....a Madison Avenue version of Godliness.

Oh sure, after all these years of seeing it, you rather expect it from the slicked-down preachers hocking God on television...but how much of this same sort of activity is going on in your own church?

Our old church back home has been falling short of true, daily living, Godliness for a while now. Many families saw this and left over a year or two time frame. Maybe that sounds harsh and judgmental, but I feel led to say it nonetheless. Our church was a home for us, spiritually and physically, for several years. It is sad to 'see' such a place of worship and full of the Holy Spirit simply walk away from that and not even realize it.

As some families left our church, they spoke deeply and Biblically to the Pastor about why they felt The Lord leading them away. Not one family simply walked away -- they spoke with the Pastor for understanding and peace over their decision. They were met with indifference and what amounted to annoyance on the part of their church family. They gave more Biblical background for their decision and cleansed their own hearts before they left.

It was not a quickly arrived choice. It was brewing for quit a long time, and when it became obvious The Lord was moving some families away, they slowly began to depart with the words they felt needed to be shared with the Pastors and deacons. What they received for their choice was a church shunning. Other members were informed of their leaving as questions arose, but they were not told the Biblical reasonings shared. They were informed that these families were no longer walking with God. That they had strayed from The Path and needed to come to an understanding of that fact so they might come back. Publicly, they were told the church doors were always open to them to return. Behind those doors, however it was a different story altogether.

Church members were spoken to individually about the families who had left. They were told to not have fellowship with these families any longer until the day they chose to wake back up to The Lord and come back. Come back to the church.

Come back to the church? How many churches do that same thing? How many buildings are placed on some higher ground for Christians? Our church had a saying -- if the Pastor is here, you should be here also. If they doors are open, the church family should be present.

I'm not denying the fact that we ought to be in a church fellowship and that it would most certainly be of benefit to many of us to be there whenever the doors are open. Too many participate in the Sunday Social Club only and don't feel the slightest draw of heart to be in attendance any more than that. But to say that it is some form of unwritten rule of membership? That is completely uBiblical in my understanding.

Back to those televangelists --

If you were watching your 'preacher' speak about the several letters of prayer and donation received, and he picked up one or more to share their story, then went about telling you, the 'faithful viewer' that this person, naming names and city and all, was not to be associated with until they chose to follow The Lord...the preachers version of the lord...wouldn't you be appalled?

What our Pastor did back home is nothing short of unGodly and UnScriptural in my mind. To go to members and renounce another member behind their backs I see no basis in Scripture for that. What I see is a calling to Christians to go to the brother/sister offender and speak to them, with witness. That is what these families did. What the church did was turn their back on their brothers and sisters in Christ simply because they did not agree. For good or for bad, those decisions brought a death shadow over our church back home that still exists today. That is the truly sad part. After 3 years, nothing has changed within the walls of our church back home. The shunning still invoked and the members who prayed, blessed and shared intimate fellowship with one another still turn their backs in silent annoyance. In ignorance.

I don't believe the church is meant to be that way. I don't believe a church can fulfill it's mandate and calling to GROW with that heart behind it. Where there is no forgiveness there cannot be growth of any kind other than darkness. If you sit in a church such as this, if you follow a leader with a blind eye, you are guilty as well. The only One we should have our eyes firmly fixed upon is The Lord, Jesus Christ. To watch and follow a wolf in sheep's clothing just because he stands in your pulpit is to follow a false teacher and to gain no ground at all.

Who are you following? Where are you going? What do you truly value?

I am following The Lord, Jesus Christ.
I am, with His Grace and Mercy, going to join Him in The Kingdom one day, though I will never deserve that incredible privilege.
I value The Word of God and do not place value above it's worthiness, on those who merely share The Word or their version of it. I seek to prove out every lesson I am taught. I seek to check line upon line and precept upon precept. The only word I am taking into my heart is that of The Lord....and He is pretty clear if I simply pay attention.

Our new church here? It is small and rural. There are a mere handful of members (under 40). The annual budget is well below $2000 and come the end of the year, every penny is emptied from the church coffers and put to use, if any remains, that is. They don't believe in keeping a balance in some savings or checking account for 'a rainy day' to come. The walk in trust and faith that The Lord provides for the needs of His Children if they continue in His Path. Our 'teachings' consist of Scripture reading and cross-referencing, memorization and meditation. It isn't everyone's cup of tea, I know. But it's about as far from Wall Street Christianity as one might get in this country in this day and age. Our pillar of smoke has brought us here. If we find it moving us along, of course we will follow.