Mood:  irritated

I should have known this was going to happen. When you're in ministry it often does. It happens to Christians all of the time.

We're under some heavy spiritual warfare right now. It was just our ministry, but now others are being used by Satan to attack our family.

It's really just one family that is attacking us, but they are making life miserable right now and I'm angry.

I know in Ephesians 6 it talks about putting on the full armor of God and says that our battle is not against flesh and blood. But it is hard not to be angry at this one couple.

I know that God has us in the palm of His hand and nothing can happen to us unless He allows it, but it still hurts and I still wonder why.

I know that many people are praying for us (and I sincerely hope that you will join them), but I still get anxious. And, I know that God says to be anxious for nothing. But it is hard...especially when it comes to your family.

I know the verses in James 1 that talks about God refining us through the problems that we have. But refining hurts and it isn't fun.

I know that people say that whenever Satan is attacking you that you should be ready for great things to happen. But it's hard to wait for the good when you are going through the bad.

I know that I am using too many BUTS, and should be praying, reading scripture, and waiting on Him. As our pastor says, we should let "Daddy" take care of everything. It's hard, though, when your 14 year old physically cries because of what the family is going through.

The father in me wants to go beat some sense in to people because of what they are doing to my family. But I know that's not right.

The human in me sometimes wants to give up. But I know that I can't give Satan the victory.

The carnal side of me wants to cry out to God and ask Him why! Why are you putting my family through this? Aren't we going through enough already with our children's health? Isn't it enough that my 87 year old mother is very ill in the hospital? Why are you putting us through this when all we are trying to do is do your work? I want to scream "Why us?" but the answer I get is, "Why not you?".

Oh, I know God will see us through this. I know that Satan is filling me with discouragement and anxiety and lies. And, I know that great things are going to happen at Good News Mission. In fact, it's already begun. Great things are happening in our personal lives as well.

I know this is just a season we are going through. Just writing this all down and knowing that all of my faithful friends are going to be praying for us has helped.

Please do pray for us. Pray for us particular tomorrow morning, October 4, if you read this in time. If you don't get this in time, please pray for how we should pursue this matter.

Pray especially for ones that Satan is using to attack us. It's a girl in her early 20's and her live in boyfriend. I won't get into details. Just pray.

Thanks for your prayers, and thanks for reading this post. I want you to know, faithful friends and readers, that you all are greatly appreciated and loved.

Tim

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Mood:  a-ok

I've mentioned Swagbucks before, but it's worth mentioning again. Swagbucks are the neatest thing. All you have to do is do your searches with the Swagbucks search tool. You an go to the Swagbucks website but they make it easy with their downloadable search bar. You don't get Swagbucks every time you search, but you do quite often, and you can earn 10, 15 or sometimes more. There are other ways to earn as well. After you earn them, there are all kinds of things that you can turn them in for. Gift certificates, electronics, almost anything you can think of! I prefer Amazon gift certificates. I can get a $5 one for only 450 Swagbucks. I've already earned 12 of them in just the past 6 or 7 months or so. I'm planning on doing a little Christmas shopping. Want to join in the fun? Just click on the above banner or on anyone of the hi-lighted links above. Happy Swaggin!

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Mood:  celebratory

We have a winner for the CSN Store $55 gift certificate giveaway! It was Geri - who was comment 125! Congratulations Geri. I am now awaiting her email address in order to contact the CSN Store representative. If Geri does not comment within five days, I will draw another winner.

Thanks to all who entered! We had 165 entries!

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Mood:  not sure

Please be in prayer for us in the next few days. We have several things going on that are not fun. Family health, ministry difficulties, etc. Perhaps soon I can go into more detail, but for now all we can ask for is prayer. We know who we are in Christ, but it is still hard to not be anxious. I thank you ahead of time for your prayers.

UPDATE: I don't know why my mood said "mischievious". This is definitely no joke. I've changed it to "unsure".

One thing I can update you on is the family health issue. My mom is not doing well at all. There was a fear that she wouldn't make it through the night. She seems to be doing a little better today, but is in ICU. We have been planning a trip to see her and my sister in New Jersey in a week or so and still plan to stay on that schedule. Thanks for all of your prayers. We can feel them.

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Mood:  spacey

Growing up my family was always competitive. We weren't cut throat or anything like that, but we still liked to compete and win. And it wasn't just athletic games that we played. I remember one time my sister and I had a contest to see who could get the most correct answers in the monthly Reader's Digest Word Power column. She always won. Of course she is 15 years older than I was. I know, excuses, excuses.

Anyway, the vocabulary contest that I had with my sister really spawned an interest in words, and I grew to love learning new words and their meaning and I want to pass that on to my children. So, when I learned that I was going to get to review Vocabulary Cartoons by New Monic Books, I was excited.

Vocabulary Cartoons is a very unique way of learning the meaning of new words. It's a way that I had never seen before, and was a little intrigued and perhaps even a little skeptical that it would work. They first introduce a word and give a definition. Then they give you word that is similar to that word. For example, one of the words was "smitten" which means very much in love. The similar word was "kitten". They then draw a cartoon portraying the vocabulary word but using the the similar word in it. For the word smitten they had a cartoon of a kitten, purring with hearts around it, brushing up against a dog. The cartoon had the title of "A Smitten Kitten". They then use the word in three sentences. Let me give you an example of an exact page so that you can see what I'm talking about:

It takes about a minute to look over the page, but it works! The combination of the definition, the similar word, the cartoon and the three sentences gives you a picture in your mind that really sticks. I gave this to John Allen, my 8th grader to use. I would assign him 10 words a couple of times a week. After 10 words, there is a review - usually a matching the word with it's definition and filling in the blank with the appropriate word type thing. In order to preserve the book for my younger boys, I just had him jot his answers down in his Language Arts notebook. This evening, right before writing this review, I did a little oral quiz with him. I asked him to give me the definitions for the first 30 words. I told him the word, and he had to orally answer. He only missed one! And most of the time he gave the exact definition that was in the book. I was thrilled and impressed. I knew that he enjoyed working in the book, and I looked over the answers he gave for the review, but this is the first time that I really quizzed his long term memory of the words. I used to think that this was just a fun activity and might help him remember learn some vocabulary words, but now I'm a believer! This really does work.

But, don't take my word for it, check out the website by clicking here or on any one of the hi-lighted links above. The New Monic Books website has sample pages of the different level of books that they sell. The level book that was sent us was the elementary edition that sells for $12.95. But, they sell books for all grade levels including high school students who are getting ready for the SAT! A group of TOS Homeschool Crew members reviewed the SAT versions and you can read what they thought of them by clicking here. Or to see what other crew members who reviewed the elementary version thought just click here. Happy homeschooling.

As a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew I was given a free copy of "Vocabulary Cartoons" by New Monic Books in order to try out and review on my blog.

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