Sunday’s here!

My beautiful flowers have opened up more and are so pretty this morning!

I love them! I love that man who gave them to me.

We had a precious time of worship and fellowship together with 22 folks. Russ and Flo came early and brought goodies and Russ got the coffee going. Russ and I are already “cut-up” buddies. Love him and the twinkle in his eyes.

Don greets Cliff and Jonnie.  They are amazing.  Cliff is legally blind, but that doesn’t slow him down.  Sweet, sweet folks.

Before church service starts, everyone visits and then they migrate to the other end of the hall where we have chairs set up.

Don’s message was “Why Do We Go To Church?” from Hebrews 10:24-25 and Psalm 122:2. It was a very good word from God and tied right in with the message on encouragement last Sunday.

After church fellowship with the refreshments that Flo and Russ brought. Mick took my camera away from me and took a picture with me in it. Can you see me?

We’re visiting with Joy and Chuck’s son, Steve, who is visiting them. Joy is the lady we visited last week and prayed with her. She and Chuck came to church with Steve today.  It’s wonderful getting to know these sweet people.

We praise God for His favor and provision and for the opportunity to minister here at Superstition Buttes Mobile Home and RV Park.

Fried chicken or fresh flowers?

While enjoying a leisurely day at the Q, Don went out for a few minutes and came back with fried chicken for him and …..

a beautiful bouquet of flowers for me. When he handed them to me, he say, “Congratulations on your weight loss. You’re doing great.”

Thanks, Sweetie!! I’d rather have beautiful flowers than fried chicken any day.

“Lightning Strucked”

My 4 year old nephew told me this morning that lightning struck his house one time and knocked the power out. This happened a long time ago, but it made a real impression on him. He looked at my Dad’s farm truck windshield this morning and told him “it got lightning strucked”, because it has cracks all in it. Do you ever feel like you have been “lightning strucked” and your power has been knocked out? Sometimes God can’t get our attention any other way! We slack off on our prayers and our time with God and start going down roads we choose not the ones God has chosen for us. The world is full of mixed messages…one day it tells you that you are beautiful and the next your ugly. One day you are so smart and the next extremely dumb. One day you are loved and the next they want nothing to do with you. That is the world! God’s message is ALWAYS the same, it NEVER changes, you are His child, completely designed by Him, no mistakes, formed by love and He will forgive your wrong choices, and make something beautiful out of your tears. He can mold you and make you to be used by Him if you are willing to give all of yourself to Him. And when you are not listening to Him, He will allow you to get “lightning strucked” and knock your power out. It is only in His power, through His power that all things are possible, never in our power!

I have a young 20 year old friend who has been “lightning strucked” this week in a mighty way!  As I type this, she is sitting in jail with all her power knocked out. She would not listen to God’s whispers and nudges so He had to get her attention in a big way. I am heart sick that this has happened to her. She has been a full time college student for 3 years and she has made good grades, she even had a 4.0 this summer taking some hard classes. This is her first offense, but it is a big one. I don’t know if she is guilty of the crime, but it doesn’t matter what I think or know. God knows the truth and He definitely has her attention now. Please pray with me that she will listen to Him now and follow Him to the path He wants her on and away from that dark path Satan convinced her to travel.

If you have been “lightning strucked” in some way, please turn to prayer and call on Jesus, He will direct you. He can make you a Holy Spirit empowered person! I will leave you with one of my favorite verses I have shared so many times before, but it is so true and appropriate for today. Isaiah 30:21 “Whether you turn to the right or to the left your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, This is the way; walk in it.”

I pray my friend listens to His voice now!

[Posted by permission of the author, Mandy Grounds, over at a prayer group I am a member of on FaceBook, Pearls for Heaven.]

Visiting friends

Our view of Superstition Butte as we drive out of Apache Junction this morning.

Before we got to Florence, the high wind got the dust a little stirred up.

The cotton fields are ready to be harvested. Some cotton has already been stripped and hauled to the gins.

Wow! We got to Norm and Lori’s (aka NoPo and LoPo) about an hour later. It was so good to see them and we chatted and chatted and got all caught up.

I couldn’t decide which edit I liked the best.

Love these kiddos!

Their new park model is really nice and LoPo is very happy to have her own washer and dryer out in their shed. NoPo did a beautiful job of putting in the floor.

We went to the Creative Cafe in Casa Grande for lunch. Oops, I forgot to take a picture of our plates pre-eating. Don and NoPo both had a chili cheeseburger, LoPo ordered a spicy wrap with tortilla soup and I have half a chef salad.

On the way back to their park, we saw the biggest dust devil I’ve every seen. That’s a very large ranch house to the right of the dust devil to give an idea of how large the dust twister was.

Before we left the park, we had to go by and see Jim and Toma. We were parked across the street from them the two years that we were at Sunscape. Funny story: Jim was taking a nap when we arrived and didn’t wake until we had been there for awhile and didn’t know we were there. Read his t-shirt!

The are so cute and we love them dearly. They love each other, too.  The Look of Love.

It was dark before we got back to the Q, but we had a great time on our date day. It’s always so wonderful to visit with friends!

Button, button, who’s got the button?

While visiting with Jim and Toma…

Toma brought out a box full of button band bracelets that she has made and is going to sell them at the craft sales they have in the park there at Sunscape.

The button bands are just too cute. I got this one with the darling giraffe for our Emma who loves them.

Toma gave me this one with metal buttons.  I love that it jingles! 

Toma said the hardest part is cutting the denim straight with the grain of the thread so it will fringe out evenly.  The fastener is commercial grade self-sticking velcro. She gets her buttons at garage sales and from old clothes that she also finds at garage sales.  Some of her buttons came from the U.K. as her granddaughter ordered her five pounds of buttons!!!  Now I wish I still had all of Mama Trudy’s buttons.

What a perfect craft project for creative people of all ages.

Around the neighborhood

I went walking with Don this morning.  We got as far as three spaces down and and gentleman sitting out on his patio drinking coffee, waved and said, “Good morning, y’all!”  Y’ALL??  Don said, “We’ve got to me this brother!”  Condy was quick to jump up and greet us and offer us a chair, so we sat and visited a bit.  Soon, his wife, Rita, came out and we learned that they spent last season at Amazon.com in Campbellsville, KY. Tom, their friend parked across the street, saw us all and came over.  He worked at Campbellsville, also.  They have got to be good, good people as they did not protest at all when I asked if I could take their picture!

Continuing on our walk…

A barrel cactus.

A large turtle yard ornament.

Pink Oleander blooms.

Citrus fruit… not sure if it’s oranges or grapefruit.

We walked a little over a mile this morning and then got in the truck and drove over to Joy and Chuck’s to make a ministry call on them.  Joy was sitting out on their front porch, so we sit down and got to know her a little.  We had been told that she is going through chemo for lung cancer.  She’s lost all her hair, but she has a very nice shaped head.  She said she’s been told that before.  As we were getting ready to leave and before Don could ask, Joy asked if Don would pray with her.  We were delighted to do so.

New Sun Shade!

Thanks to Bev and Jerry, who visited us yesterday and left us a gift earmarked for “personal use only,” we now have a much needed shade on the west side of the Q.  In the middle of the day, it shades the patio nicely and allows us to sit and visit with guests in the comfort of a breeze, usually. Thanks again, Bev and Jerry! We’ve been look at shades since we got here.

While sitting out and enjoying our new shade, I took a shot of the beautiful moon.

We live in the Workamper section…

Across the street, Joyce and Ron.

Next door to Joyce & Ron, Doug.

Phyllis and Loren live in the Cameo and they hold a Bible study there!

Phyllis and Opie live in the motorhome behind us.

Long after sundown last night, we heard a rig getting parked.  Today, we met Pete.  His wife is Juanita, but we haven’t met her yet. They sure have had a rough time since leaving Mississippi.  They had a wreck in Little Rock and a blowout just as they were arriving in Phoenix on I-17 from Flagstaff. Lots of damage done to their fifth wheel… black tank and lines; electric lines and who knows what else.

On the other side of Pete and Juanita, Dolly lives in a mobile home with her son.

Dan and wife live in the coach and Darrell and wife live in the fifth wheel in front of the big Saguaro cactus.

Our immediate neighbors to the west, Jewell, Bob and son, Lucky. Sweet Jewell assured Don that he could use their land line to do his pacemaker checks.  We are grateful for her generous, neighborly spirit.

Now…

We’re watching the World Series and Thursday Night Football.   

Psalm 145:1-13 (NLT)

¹ I will exalt you, my God and King,
and praise your name forever and ever.
² I will praise you every day;
yes, I will praise you forever.
³ Great is the Lord! He is most worthy of praise!
No one can measure his greatness.

⁴ Let each generation tell its children of your mighty acts;
let them proclaim your power.
⁵ I will meditate on your majestic, glorious splendor
and your wonderful miracles.
⁶ Your awe-inspiring deeds will be on every tongue;
I will proclaim your greatness.
⁷ Everyone will share the story of your wonderful goodness;
they will sing with joy about your righteousness.

⁸ The Lord is merciful and compassionate,
slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love.
⁹ The Lord is good to everyone.
He showers compassion on all his creation.
¹⁰ All of your works will thank you, Lord,
and your faithful followers will praise you.
¹¹ They will speak of the glory of your kingdom;
they will give examples of your power.
¹² They will tell about your mighty deeds
and about the majesty and glory of your reign.
¹³ For your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom.
You rule throughout all generations.

The Lord always keeps his promises;
he is gracious in all he does.

Tortilla Flat, AZ

We finally made it to Tortilla Flat, AZ.  When we were in Arizona two years ago, we went one day, but there was no parking place available and people were standing outside.  Today, we found a place to park easily and did not have to wait at all to be seated in the restaurant.

 

The walls in the restaurant are covered with one dollar bills.

If you belly up to the bar, you will be astride a saddle covered bar stool.  

Don enjoyed the cheeseburger, which was just your average burger.  I had the “Peep Salad”… aka chicken taco salad, keeping my meal Lean & Green.

Aww, man! It’s closed!

It’s been many moons since this wagon saw the back end of a horse or mule.

My view just before getting back in the truck.

A view of Canyon Lake from the southwest side.

We got a call from friends and ministry partners, Bev and Jerry, while at Tortilla Flat letting us know that they were headed over to see us from Glendale.  We got back to the Q a few minutes before they arrived and had a great visit.  It was so good to see Bev and Jerry again… these friends that we met at Sunscape RV Resort, Casa Grande, Arizona, a few years ago.