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Sustauroo
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Name: HoB
Birthday: 6/14/1985
Gender: Female
Interests: Psychology, art, music, God, books.
Expertise: Making grilled cheese and soup (either broccoli and cheese or tomato soup). I love to bake too.
Occupation: Media Specialist at Best Buy
Industry: Other
Message: message meEmail: email me
Member Since:
10/11/2004
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| I am sad to say this to all y'all... but I have officially left Xanga and I am now using BlogSpot.
To read up on what is going on in my life and heart in Iowa; go here:
http://sustauroo.blogspot.com/
Hope to see you there!
Love Eternally Through Christ,
Holly Faye
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Iowa City, IA-Escanaba, MI-Mackinac Island-Mackinaw City-Traverse City-Shipshewana, IN-Iowa City, IA
Adam and I leave Friday morning... we're SUPER pumped!
Travel Totals: 1,302 mi – about 23 hours 33 minutes
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| Pictures, thanks to NASA...
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html
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God certainly answers prayers in strange ways...
If you
haven't heard already, there is a whole lot of flooding going on in
Iowa right now. Yes, we are being effected. No, the water has not
reached our house-nor will it. Thankfully we moved out of our
apartment when we did because there is flooding over there and they
needed to evacuate the building. Our house is couple miles away from
the flooding and has so far been quite safe from it all. Not saying
that it's not possible that it could reach us, but for now we are
fine. The current problem is not being able to get anywhere because
all the roads are closed... so we wait!
Check out some of the
blogs (at the bottom) to see pictures of the church building. We were
evacuated from the facility because it was considered "no longer
safe". So, we had 3 semi-trucks that came to help us move out as much
stuff in the building as we could; which was pretty much everything.
God
has been SO amazing through this, and we praise His name for the works
that He is doing through this. It's incredible to just see the many
people and businesses in the area that have come to help. This is
truly bringing our community together and that is worth 500 church
buildings.
Adam and I just got back from the church building
to see the damage and the water is about 3-4 feet away from the roof.
The water is supposed to peak on Wednesday, so it very easily could get
to that height. At this point the sandbags just held off the water for
us to be able to have more time to evacuate, thank God for that!
I
am obviously uncertain as to how much damage is going to be done
through this and whether it will be salvageable with the cost of
gutting it out. Even if we did gut it out and got it back to working
order, we still have the struggle of not having enough space. With us
being on a flood plain and it flooding twice in the last 15 years there
seems no point in trying to get the city to allow us to build on the
current property. I greatly doubt that we would be get permission to
build on the current location regardless. For now we will meet at West
High School and be the traveling church for a time.
I know that
this is really hard on a lot of people, especially those that have made
Parkview home for years and years. We could certainly use prayer of
comfort...
This too, shall pass. This time is a season and we can
still glorify and worship HIS Holy Name. There is no shame in this,
only ambition to seek His will.
The best part of this whole
flooding and depending on God was on June 9th. While we were sand
bagging and everyone seemed to be a little stressed about the water
coming in so quickly-God sent us a rainbow. It was as if He not only
knew we were scared and needed comfort, but He wanted to remind us of
the promise that He made after The Flood of the world. He didn't need
to, but for 10 minutes, He displayed not only His knowledge of our
situation, but the comfort that it was all in His hands.
Thank you God for watching over us in everything!
Scott's Blog:
http://deo-gloria.blogspot.com/
And Adam's blog is updated daily, too, with pics and videos.
http://sdg131516.blogspot.com
The Church Website:
http://www.parkviewchurch.org/contents/index.php?page=home
Love Eternally Through Christ,
Holly Carmichael
Ecclesiastes 3.1-14:
1 There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven:
2 a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
3 a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
4 a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain,
6 a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
7 a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
8 a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.
9 What does the worker gain from his toil? 10 I have seen the burden
God has laid on men. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time.
He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom
what God has done from beginning to end. 12 I know that there is
nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live. 13
That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his
toil—this is the gift of God. 14 I know that everything God does will
endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it.
God does it so that men will revere him.
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| A friend of mine's Dad wrote this and I found it very inspiring:
"I thought that I would share with you what God has been teaching me
from His Word the past few days. In Matthew I have seen Joseph, the
husband of Mary, who heard God’s word and obeyed. The angel shows up
and tells him to marry a pregnant Mary and he does. He is told to flee
to Egypt and he does. He is told to return and then to settle in
Nazareth and he does. He never questions; just obeys. Later Jesus calls
the disciples and the immediately leave their nets and follow him.
There is a lot to be learned about simply obeying God when He speaks.
I have been especially challenged by Noah. He also hears God and
obeys. When God asks him to do something that probably seemed a little
strange he obeyed. He didn’t question or try to understand; he just
obeyed. Four times it says “Noah did everything that God commanded.”
There is a lot to be chewed on in this thought of simple obedience
but what challenges me even more is that Noah entered the ark when God
called him in and only came out when God said it was time. He stayed in
the circumstances to which God had called him until God said it was
done. He spent a year in that confined space with all those animals and
limited company; that couldn’t have been a picnic! I am sure that there
were times when Noah and his family just couldn’t wait for the door to
open so that they could get out. I would have gotten a little
claustrophobic! But the thing that was probably trying to Noah was the
very thing that God was using to save Noah’s family and the world.
I pray that I can develop that kind of faithful patience in my handling
of this disease. I need to be content to stay where God has placed me
until He has accomplished His purpose. This disease may be the “ark”
that God is using to work in my life and family.
Well enough “philosophizing”. I hope that these simple thoughts
will challenge and encourage you as they have me. God is good and His
mercy endures forever.
Scott Steiner"
His disease is cancer.
He also wrote this:
"I have been reading the life of Abraham and am so constantly grateful
that God calls him His friend. James 2:22-24, “And so it happened just
as the Scriptures say: “Abraham believed God, and God counted him as
righteous because of his faith.” He was even called the friend of God.”
Do you know how many times Abraham demonstrated a lack of faith by
lying and scheming? His obedience was anything but complete most of the
time. Yet when it came to the greatest test of his life, his faith had
grown to where he completely obeyed God without question or hesitation.
I am so thankful that God faithfully works in our life to develop our
faith so that we are ready to handle the test when the time comes. I
know that I certainly have lived like the early Abraham, with the lying
and scheming and lack of faith. I hope that I can be like the Abraham
at the end of his life, the one who believed God and was the friend of
God.
Be encouraged today. God has a plan, God is present, and God has
the power to accomplish His plan. God's will is like a mosaic, the
pictures that are created by putting bits of colored broken stone
together in such a way to create a beautiful picture. When you get too
close to a mosaic all you see is the broken stone but when you step
back you can take in the full beauty of the masterpiece! We are but
bits of broken stone in the mosaic of God's masterpiece."
'Nough said...
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