Loretta, A Super Prayer Warrior

Prayer becomes more meaningful as we counsel with the Lord in all of our doings, as we express heartfelt gratitude, and as we pray for others. (David A. Bednar)


Do you have a special prayer warrior in your church? One of those people you better not ask to pray for something you want unless you're really sure you want the prayer answered because it will be. We have a prayer warrior like that in our little country church. Loretta is an example of faithfulness and love. 

We went to her house tonight to help her celebrate her 99th birthday that is coming up next week. At her age, you can celebrate every day for a month if you want to. Loretta told us she has been a member of our church for seventy-five years. She gave her life to Christ as a young teen before she married at age sixteen. She and her husband, who died several years ago at age 96, moved their membership to our church when they bought a farm in the neighborhood. She said they used to go all around the area and gather up children to bring to Bible School. Recently, she had been going through some of her things and found the worker certificates she received for working in Bible School in 1957 and 1960. She'd kept them all these years and had them to show us tonight.  

Another thing she has kept all these years is her devotion to the Lord. Every day she reads His word. Every day she prays for her family and friends and for her church. Every day she thanks the Lord for His blessings. Even on the hard days. 

This week is a good time to visit Loretta. To rejoice with her in a life well lived. She is the mother of five, the grandmother of many and yet she makes time to pray for the others in her church family. A true prayer warrior. 

As you read or listen to God's Word and spend time talking to Him in prayer, your spirit will eventually become stronger than your flesh. (Joyce Meyer)

That's where Loretta is now. Strong of spirit and not as strong of body anymore. But she's still remembering that the "knee" is an important part of the church family when it's bent in prayer. Proverbs 31 could be written about Loretta. Give her of the fruit of her hands, and let her own works praise her in the gates. (Proverbs 31:31)

I have been so blessed by Loretta's prayers for me. Do you know someone like Loretta? 

Cookies and Kool Aid

We're still going strong at Bible School. At least the kids are. They can get a lot more mileage out of those cookies and Kool Aid than us older folks can. I usually teach the teenagers, but this year the teens must have had other things going and nobody showed up for my class. So I've been helping with the Beginners. That's ages two to five. Very challenging when a couple of them keep crying for their mamas and daddies. I think those two aren't really ready for Bible School, but the pastor's wife and I are giving it our best try. And without the cookies and popcorn I don't know if we'd make it.

But I really do love Bible School and getting to know the kids better and hearing what they tell you. In one class the teacher was impressing on the children how they could pray and God would always be listening. This little girl pipes up and says, "I prayed I wouldn't have to stay at the babysitter's and I did. I don't think He was listening that day." That makes us smile, but you know a lot of us might have felt something the same at this or that time. But as Br. Fred often says, there are more than one way for the Lord to answer our prayers. There's yes. There's no. There's wait. There's not yet. There's trust Me. The Lord sees the whole picture and we sometimes only see the part right in front of our eyes.

Just take my Shaker book, The Outsider. I came up with the original idea over thirty years ago. Wrote the book. Had it rejected over and over as too religious. Got a really nice letter from Harlequins, but it was still a thanks, but no thanks letter. Then all these years later I dug it out of my closet, rewrote it for the inspirational market and Revell published it. Best of all readers read it. So maybe the answer that I thought was no way back then was really wait. Not yet. This story's time will come.

The Believer didn't have such a wait time. Now I can only hope the time is right for Elizabeth's and Ethan's story. I think you're going to like them as characters and that you will like reading their story. Some of you have already pre-ordered the book and I certainly appreciate that. In fact so many people did that when I called Baker Books to order more copies for myself, they didn't have any. I couldn't complain about that although I did ask the lady I was talking to if they'd printed any copies. She assured me they had and that they would be printing some more. That was good news.

And thank goodness, she did some switching around and found some copies for me. It might not be good to try a book event or signing without books. I'm planning a local book event at the Anderson County Library on Saturday afternoon, August 22. I'll have door prizes and other fun things that day. But first I'll be having the book's coming out party at Shaker Village in Mercer County this coming Saturday morning. I'm looking forward to that. There will be a traditional Shaker breakfast. Well, the food anyway will be traditional. We'll be breaking their traditions by talking. The Shakers didn't allow talking during meals in what they called their "biting rooms." That would be difficult for me this Saturday morning. I plan to do some talking and sharing with my friends. If you can't be there, I'll let you know how things went on Sunday.

Hope you have some fun things planned for this weekend. Summer is zooming past. They're starting school here week after next. Seems way too early. Kids are supposed to go swimming in August. Not go back to school.

And then the phone goes crazy

Hi everybody. I know. I know. It's not Saturday or Sunday, but my computer modem went belly-up last Friday or Saturday. I don't know which day. Things were so crazy around here last week what with Bible School every night. I already think I don't have enough hours in the day to get half of what I need to get done finished and then you take out four or so hours a day for Bible School. I know that's not a lot of time to dedicate the Lord, and I know He's the master of my time. I might not even have four hours tomorrow. I hope I do. I think I will, but I can't be sure. I just have to remember the Shaker saying on that one and do my work as if I thought I had a thousand years to live and that I might die tomorrow. In other words, don't stress out, just do it the way it's supposed to be done.

And we did have a good time at Bible School. Not many kids at our little church, but the ones who were there got to have a lot of fun and learn about Jesus and the Bible. Still all us older teachers were glad when Friday came. I don't know how they used to do two weeks every summer for three hours every day. Of course more mothers were home with their kids and didn't have outside jobs. They worked hard in the field and gardens and sewing and canning, but most of them didn't have jobs at the bank or Wal-Mart or wherever. So the chores got put off by them the same as they did by me this last week. Of course, sometimes I put the chores off every week and it's beginning to show on my house.

To add to the confusion last week, we got a new fridge which meant I had to clean out the old fridge and get ready for the new one. I hate to tell you, but I'm not a housekeeper who pulls her fridge out every two or three weeks to clean behind it. It's clean now though. Then my son had a business trip to another state and my daughter-in-law rode along for a little R & R. So I had their three kids who are of course beautiful and smart and fun, but they also wear their old grammy out after a while. But none of that is the real reason I'm late posting this week. That's the modem's fault. Every time I plugged the computer line into the phone jack, the phone started ringing non-stop. Not good. But I put the new modem in this morning while the kids ate breakfast and it seems to be working okay. So far.

Tomorrow I have to get back to work on my new book. I got behind on my daily page quota last week because of Bible School and now I've missed two days playing with the grandkids. I'm going to have to make the keyboard sing the rest of the week to even make a fair showing. But I think I know what's happening next in the story. That's always good. Now if I just knew a little more about what's going to happen after that. Oh well, the words have always come before. Maybe they will again.

The release date for The Outsider is getting closer and so is the arrival date of my twin grandsons. My daughter-in-law (the one in WV) is even more anxious for August to get here than I am. She's already having a hard time finding a way to get comfortable sitting or lying down. I, of course, am anxiously anticipating both events.

I have to close. My kitchen is a disaster. I was helping the little one (she just turned two) brush her teeth and get ready for bed and the older ones (six and eight) along with a neighbor girl kept asking me about making glaze for doughnuts. I thought they were just curious. I should have known better than that. There is a light dusting of confectioner's sugar on the cabinets and the floor and who knows where else. Neat is not my grandson's middle name, but he was giving it the old college try. And we got glaze made before they went home. I've still got glaze in case I find any stray doughnuts, I suppose.

Have a great week.

VBS and Finding Time to Get It All Done

Hi again, everybody. Are you like me and not finding enough hours in the day to do everything that needs doing? Truth is, I've been letting a lot of things that need doing slip by not done. I'm going to have to get going on cleaning my house soon or well, I guess it'll just get more in need of a dedicated housekeeper. I'm not dedicated to housecleaning. But I used to do a better job when all the kids were home. I had more of a routine then. Saturdays I cleaned. Now Saturdays are always busy with some other activity. Darrell's singing and I get to go along or Darrell's singing and I think wow, I don't want to waste a perfect day to write on doing chores. Maybe the grandkids have slept over or are coming to visit or I'm going to visit them. Or I want to go somewhere with my sisters or help Mom out. Or the wildflowers at Panther Rock were in bloom and a person has to stop to smell the roses, doesn't she? There is always something. That's for sure and when those kind of choices come up, I don't pick washing windows. Maybe I should, but I don't.

And now next week I have the best excuse ever -- Vacation Bible School. Talk about a gobbler upper of time. That can do it. First you've got to come up with lessons or study the lessons in the books you have. Second, you have to do crafts and plan activities that will keep the kids interested. Have you noticed that's harder to do than it used to be? I've been teaching Bible School for many years. Many years! And the kids aren't as easy to settle in to Bible study as they used to be. Of course, at our little church we don't have any electronic stuff to show movies or slides or whatever. We depend on the Bible and have an old fashioned Bible School that fits our little church best. The new programs are great, but we don't have the room at our church or the volunteers to lead that sort of program. So we just go back to the Bible School style of old and most of our kids have the most fun ever. So next week promises to be a whirlwind of activity. I'm hoping I can keep somewhat to my goal of getting a set number of pages of my new book written every week, but I might not have the proper time. Especially since I have to take Mom to the doctor one day and my dog to the vet the next day. Plus we bought a new fridge and that means I have to empty out the old fridge and get the spot ready for the new fridge. I'll take me half a day to take all the grandkids' photos and art work off the old fridge. :) The new fridge is not going to be as art display friendly, but we'll have to work out something. The side maybe.

Darrell and I took one of those Saturdays off the way I was talking about earlier and went to a play "As It Is in Heaven" at Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill. It was not as good as I'd hoped. I've been doing a lot of Shaker research and there were several things that were just wrong according to the books I've been reading. They had the Shaker girl having a pet cat. That was not allowed. The little girls couldn't even have dolls. The Shakers did have a few cats late in the life of Shakerism in the late 1800's and early 1900's after the rules of conduct had relaxed quite a bit. But the play was set in 1837. No pets then. However the actresses did a great job and I liked hearing the Shaker songs they sang. They were definitely authentic songs. I hope to go back to Shaker Village for a full day of sightseeing and absorbing the atmosphere soon. The Shakers were interesting people, but not very easily understood in their time or even now. They had a lot of contradictory ways.

My new book, The Outsider, about the Shaker girl and the frontier doctor will be out in August. Publisher's Weekly reviewed it. Not a great review. I always hope for a great review, but I don't always get what I hope for. I met one writer who said she never read reviews. I'm beginning to thing that might be a good idea. The review wasn't really that bad, just not great. Oh well. Maybe the next one will be better and I know me. I won't be able to keep from reading it, good or bad.

I do appreciate all of you who may have put a review out somewhere for me. Terri put one on Amazon.com last week and I really appreciate that. I also really appreciate every time you recommend one of my books to a friend. Word of mouth reviews are the best kind. If they're good, that is.

The ACFW Southeast zone newsletter had me as their featured zone author this month. It was a fun interview and I enjoyed talking about my writing to all the other writers in the group. Every day I get a digest of messages where the members of the loop tell about what's going on in their writing lives and that's always fun to read about. You can visit the ACFW (Amercian Christian Fiction Writers) on the internet and if you're a writer of Christian fiction you can sign up and enjoy all the perks. (For a membership fee, of course. But part of the site is open to anybody who wants to click on.) I haven't been taking advantage of all the information out there on the site because, well, I have to get my new book done before my daughter-in-law has those twins this summer.

Yeah, I know. We're right back to that not enough time for everything bit. Hope you have the time to do all the things you most want to do. I love teaching Bible stories at Bible School so I'll be sure to make time for that this week. Ann