A Cup of Cold Water

"And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward." Matthew 10:42

My heart has been heavy all week with the news of the earthquake, the devastation, the images of the dead, the hurting, the mourning, and my helplessness. My brother and sister-in-law, Jeff and Vicki Rogers, work for an organization named G.O. Ministries that ministers to the poor on the island of Hispaniola, where both the Dominican Republic and Haiti are located. They travel back and forth from the States to the DR and into Haiti, and have over the years made Haiti much more real to me through their stories and pictures.



"What difference can I make?" you may ask yourself. There is much evidence already that God builds on what each of us do individually. One newspaper reported that, as of Thursday night, $7 million had been raised through cell phone pledges of $10 each, by texting "Haiti" to 90999. Most everyone in the U.S. can come up with $10. My kids blew me away today by telling me that they wanted me to donate their month's allowances to the relief effort. They are 11 and 13.



G.O. Ministries has already managed to acquire the use of 2 planes to shuttle supplies and has set up their headquarters in Santiago, DR, as a staging area for medical supplies, food, water, and emergency supplies. A couple of their American missionaries who live in Santiago full-time chartered a boat and have traveled up the coast of Haiti to rescue a mission team stranded there. Two truckloads of supplies will go out to the coast to be delivered by boat tomorrow and, hopefully the first of many flights will go in to Jacmel with supplies for some orphanages.



Please plug in, get involved, contribute something -- whether it's prayers, time, money, encouragement -- find a way to help. Everything counts. God will use it all to his glory.



Click the link to see a great example of the work God does through regular, everyday people. This is outside Santiago, DR. It was built by hand, one cinder block at a time, with no machinery, but lots of love. I am blessed that God used my unskilled hands to help, if only for a few precious days, with this project: Brisas update

"Dear children, let us not love with word or tongue, but with actions and in truth." 1 John 3:18

Baby, It's Cold Outside!

OK, folks. When I tell people I love winter, I mean the 30-ish degree winters we are used to in the Middle Tennessee area. It's 15 stinkin' degrees outside right now! What? I am not prepared for this! Last year, in a fit of declutteritis, I donated my heavy coat that had not been worn in about 5 years. The girls, deciding that their coats were uncool ("Mom! No one wears pink anymore!"), put theirs in the Goodwill bag too. Only The Man, who breaks out in hives if forced to get rid of anything and is, in fact, the ultimate pack rat (ask me about the 3-legged chair he brought home once), has a warm coat to wear.

Ah well, this too shall pass. Given our fickle weather, it could be 70 degrees here tomorrow. I shall, in the meantime, snuggle into my favorite corner of the couch, with may faithful guardians, Sammy and Rosco, and cast on something new. Perhaps it is time to fashion a mate for that fingerless mitt I made for a friend several months (or could it be more than a year?) ago. Poor little fella:


I am proud to say that I have finished my first project for 2010. This was a free pattern I found thru Ravelry - Susie's Reading Mitts courtesy of Dancing Ewe Yarns. I started them on 12/30 and polished them off last night (1/2). These will go in the mail to my sis-in-law this week. Hope she enjoys them! I may have to make myself a pair.

First, I'll have to buy some new dpns. I had about 1/2 inch of the hand to do and the thumb still unknit, when 2 of my #4 dpns fell into the crevice between the couch cushions -- the attached couch cushions. When I was feeling around in the cracks with my hand, the needles worked their way into a much smaller crevice in the couch frame, never to be heard from again. @$&*(#*&@! I rummaged thru my stash of circulars and found a set of #3.5s. I was able to finish off last little bit of knitting with those, knitting a bit more loosely than normal. Crisis averted! Mitts were saved from the dreaded Abyss (bottom of the knitting basket).

I hope y'all have a wonderful new year full of lots of fibery goodness, many blessings, and a life abundant!

Twas the Day After Christmas...

and all through the house
not a creature was stirring
except for this mouse (oh, and 2 dogs).

Good morning, all!

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas. Ours was a quiet, laid back, all day PJ party. We abandoned tradition and opened all the gifts before breakfast. Afterward, there were children to tease and laugh with, family and friends to call or send greetings of cheer, movies to watch, cards to be played, naps to be had, a fire to be warmed by, football to watch (or knit by), a feast to be eaten, sweets to indulge in...and there was the laying aside of all troubles, worries and fears. Ours was a day to accept and enjoy the gift that God, through Christ, has given us all:

I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.
--John 10:10

May you all enjoy an abundant life. God bless.