My sister has asked me to be a guest blogger, and I am honored. I just walked in the door from a whirlwind 1,000 mile trip in just 3 days. It is a good thing my husband and I are compatible!!!
All three of our children left for summer church camp early this morning, which was the reason that they did not join us on our marathon cross country trek. First a few blog thoughts (and questions) on the trip...Is every road in America under construction right now? Lake Michigan is beautiful and feels good on a 100 degree day - It reminded me of the ocean with the sandy beach and the gentle waves...does Lake Michigan have a tide like the ocean? What a blessing it is to be with people who are relaxed about entertaining you! I never knew that I could enjoy sleeping with 3 Boston terriers in bed with us...but I did. They are neat dogs. Our hosts actually did a "dog compatibility" survery before they adopted their Boston terriers. Apparently they had a string of uncompatible dogs before these 3 sweeties. Speaking of dogs....
When we were living in the Philippines we had 2 dogs - Tracker (the male) and Sugar (the female). Dogs were a necessity for us, not just a luxury. They were guard dogs (gentle ones, but noisy) to discourage thievery (we regularly had clothes stolen from the clothes line, or bikes, or shoes from outside the door etc.) and they were good snake and rat catchers. And the rats in the Philippines really cannot be caught by cats, because they are as big as cats - truly! We once had a rat run off carrying a bag of McDonalds hamburgers in his mouth - the whole bag. We had a hard time putting our feet on that floor again. One unusual trait of our dogs was that Sugar was the worker and Tracker the pleaser. If a rat came down off our roof into the yard, Sugar was sure to grab it in her mouth, give one shake, and then lay it down dead. Tracker would wait until we were around, run to the rat, pick it up and bring it to us, as if he had actually accomplished a mighty deed. We had running jokes about Tracker and Sugar knowing the Lord. Whenever our children were memorizing Bible verses they would say them over and over again to the dogs who listened attentively with ears cocked. We even had a few of the young people in the church we were planting actually practice giving their testimonies or sharing their faith with the dogs, because of their enthusiastic response, in Cebuano we would say, "Ang mga iro nga kahibalo sa Dios" (the dogs who know the Lord). I know this blog is random and rabbit traily, but I did just complete a L O N G drive, and I'm a bit punchy. My sister fernnook farmgirl - is in Mexico right now, and we are praying that she, and her family (including our Mom), and their companions, are being a blessing, as well as being challenged and given lots of opportunities for service. I don't know if fernnook farmgirl introduced me as her little sister - but I am (except I am taller 4'10" - so maybe I'm her little/big sister. I'll be blogging tomorrow, hopefully with more sense :-). Philippine Sister