God's Creatures

Why are we always so surprised when we observe something new and amazing in God's creation? We thought Mama Bunny decided to not reside in our flower garden. We never saw her return, nor did we ever see her sitting on the nest or even go near it. This week we noticed that the nest area had been dug up - on closer observation there was bunny fur mixed into the nesting material, especially under the patio!!!! Yep, she had her babies right there in front of our noses, then moved them to a safer area, all without our noticing her. Is this also true of our daily lives? How many times do we see a need - a person begging on the street, a young mother struggling with groceries and two small children, an elderly person trying to load their groceries into their car, a husband trying to open a door while helping his wife in a wheelchair? It is all of these very small things that we should be aware of - helping out in a simple situation- at least simple to us - making life a bit easier for someone else. My greatest "high" one day years ago was when a tired mother of 3 was trying to make a phone call in a pay booth (yes, there were such things) and had not realized that the cost had been raised from 25 cents to 35 cents - she asked if I had change for a dollar so she could make the phone call. I simply handed her a dime, smiled, and walked away. Out of the corner of my eye, I watched her wipe a tear from her eye, smile at her children, and start to make the call. It was difficult to see her though because of the tears in my eyes. I hoped she passed it on!

Last night was an absolutely beautiful evening here in S Texas - as I weeded the cactus garden, and trimmed back the roses I enjoyed the coolness and the beautiful sunset on the horizon. The second wave of hummingbirds are back, and they were buzzing and chirping over my head on the way to the feeder. I was able to stand right under the feeder and watch them from about 12 inches away. They are such amazing creatures. The many trees in the park were full of birds, all singing and cawing loudly - enjoying the evening as I was. I need to remember to praise the Creator as well as His creation.

It is only September, but Sally Maloney and I are making plans for our 5th annual God's Worthy Women conference in February. We hope this year's conference will be the greatest and best of all - although what could be better than a lady coming to the Lord at one of our conferences??  We are lining up the program, hoping to give all of the ladies present there a true heart for missions, as well as helping them to truly be a  worthy woman of God.

Chaplain Dennis and Sally along with us, video taped a short video for use with the new Sanctuary Outpost website. Paul Darnell, one of our Canadian chaplains does an excellent job on putting this together for us, smiling, I am sure, at our inexperience. We are all still working on it, but you can check out the monthly updates at www.sanctuaryoutpost.org

The Sunday service message from Pastor Israel was on the topic of "Choices". Ironically enough, the subject for my October contribution to Sanctuary Outpost Newsletter  (the SON) is going to be about choices - the choices some of the children at CHI make as they become older and are exposed to the worldly fascinations. I should have it ready to post some time this week. Use the above web address to see all of the stories from Sanctuary Outpost chaplains.

Another one of God's tiny creatures decided to "find" us. A little male grey kitten showed up at our house one day, immediately took a liking to us, and acted like he knew us forever. He was very vocal, howling and yelling at us to let him in the door to be petted and held. We fed him, held him, then called our park director to help find a home for him. Linda was an angel - she found a home the next day and took him to his new family, but not before she, too, fell in love with him.

doesn't he have a sweet face?

A pair of doves have decided to take up housekeeping on a neighbor's night light. I happened to catch the both of them together, the female sitting on the nest, and the male keeping guard. They did not even appear afraid as I approached and took pictures. I wonder if these are the shy young couple I tried to photograph last year when they scooted over and hid in the trees???

proud parents to be

keeping watch over his family