Somehow or other, I feel like I've come through a long dark swamp. I had a dream last night, that even though I don't remember all the details, seemed to put a whole bunch of stuff into perspective for me. I woke up very early (for me), somewhere close to 5:00 am and couldn't go back to sleep. That means I got less than 5 hours of sleep, so we'll see how I do through the rest of the day. :) But I feel more relaxed than I've felt in several weeks.
So, what have I been doing? Hmmm. Interesting question. Staying close to the flat, rarely leaving it, in fact. My eye is the same, my vision is not good, and I still fear tripping and falling. Whenever I do walk anywhere, I walk with someone, preferably Mel, so I can hold on to him in the rough patches. There are a lot of rough patches here. Poor man!
But I have to admit, I'm bored with this flat. Sick and tired of the heat and humidity. Tired of reading the same old stuff on the internet every day. Tired of weaving. Tired of embroidering. Can't find my new cross-stitch project (where in the world did I put it????). Do not want to step foot into the kitchen (due to heat mostly).
Actually, I'd love to go on vacation. Where? Hmmm. Another interesting question. A few years ago I would automatically have said, "Scotland!" Or maybe I'd have said, "Egypt again!" Or maybe I'd have even said, "Greenland!" Of all those destinations, Greenland is the only one that sounds even remotely interesting - and safe! Oh, I'd like to go visit New Zealand, too, but that's not exactly close, and it's not exactly safe right now either (depending on where you are at of course - the earthquakes are located mostly in one area).
The earth continues to rumble. Radiation continues to spew up into the air in Japan (did you know that? The main stream media does not report on it - you have to go digging to find out what's happening over there. Click on link to read the latest info from Arnie Gundersen of Fairwind Associates.)
In fact, it makes me wonder - when was the last time you thought about Chile? People died in a big earthquake there not so long ago and there are still after shocks happening. A large volcano, Cordon Caulle, has been continuously erupting for a couple months now on the Chile/Argentina border. Click on the link - absolutely stunning photos! Amazing amounts of snow have fallen in Chile this winter (yes, it's winter there!) - so much that the storms are being called "storms of the century!" which is ridiculous since it's only 2011 and the century has just begun and no one knows what the storms will be like in 24 years.
When was the last time you thought about Christchurch, New Zealand? The aftershocks continue to rumble there, more buildings fall down each time, the city center is a ghost town, whole subdivisions are falling to pieces due to landslides, etc. It's pretty amazing, really, what God is doing to a town that bears His Son's title! But when I've looked at photos on The Landslide Blog, mostly I'm amazed and awed at what God does. Check them out: Images of landslides from the Christchurch earthquake Part 1. Be sure to check out all five parts!!
I could write more, about the volcano in Hawaii and it's recent lava lake collapse (really cool video avaiable at YouTube - just do a search). Or about the volcano, Nabro, that erupted without warning in Eretria.
Or about Comet Elenin. Good grief! There is so much garbage out there on the web about this comet, it is amazing! NASA had to take down one of their sites on it due to all the End of the World conspiracy junk people were posting. I'm sure they did not want to be a forum for spreading false information and having their name associated with it. (just guessing)
And the guy who insists that there have been volcanic emissions of some sort coming out of Southern California, actually in an area that Mel and I traveled through and played tourists in about 18 months ago. He's also into HAARP conspiracies, weather modification and other stuff. I'd laugh, but it's too serious of a problem, what he's doing, to laugh about it.
Sometimes I just have to laugh, though. The world has gone crazy! (It's a sad kind of laughter, you see.)
Literally crazy.
Rioting in London and other parts of Great Britain. Riots in Syria, with the government there actually killing close to 2,000 of their own people (maybe more, info is hard to get out of the country right now) in attemps to quell the 'problem'. Flash mobs in the US. Riots in Greece, Spain. Sit-in in Israel.
And so much more. The world has gone crazy.
And I watch it from my little computer, in my little flat, in my little city which fortunately remains calm and somewhat normal. What IS normal??? :) :)
Today the sky is very gray and it's much cooler, altho still over 80 degrees here at my desk, according to my thermometer. It sprinkled earlier, was dripping just a bit when I got up. We have really needed the rain - hope we get some more.
So, in the mean time, the grapes are ripening on the balcony, my grandson is getting ready to go back to school this week, my granddaughter is growing like a little weed, and life continues. And I pray for them continually.
I'm glad I dreamed last night. I feel so much better about it all. :) :)
Really!
Showing posts with label End Times. Show all posts
Showing posts with label End Times. Show all posts
Monday, August 15, 2011
Thursday, June 02, 2011
Much Better
I slept well last night. The first time in several days. Slept until 9:00! Wow - that is almost 1.5 hours longer than I have been sleeping.
And I feel better today. Much, much better.
A little sleep, a lot of prayer from friends and by myself - and I'm feeling better.
What really surprises me is that I came to this understanding after reading the news and some blogs this morning.
The stock market fell almost 280 points yesterday. There were more tornadoes, this time in an area of the US where they happen but are not common, all over the world more animals died under strange circumstances, more volcanoes are threatening to erupt, Fukishima continues to spew out radiation with no end in sight and with no idea when it will actually be 'contained', and violence is breaking out or continuing all over the world (like in Yemen), sometimes in ways and places that are not expected, like on airplanes. Plus, an Islamic cleric is okaying human slavery and praising jihad (again, as usual). And to top it all off, more food is now unsafe to eat, E.coli mystery spreads concern across Europe (to say nothing of all the Genetically Modified Food now in our food supply chain!).
So, there you go - bits and pieces of all the wonderful news today. And yet - I'm feeling myself (a very Russian way of saying that!) much better today.
Thank you, thank you for your prayers. I so needed them.
Now, I need to go get dressed - it is almost noon! And then I need to get a load of wash in the washer and then get the chicken ready for the oven. We have company coming over for dinner tonight. Probably should clean up the livingroom, too - they will need a place to sit down and eat. haha!
Cheyenne thinks this is a good place to sleep!
And I feel better today. Much, much better.
A little sleep, a lot of prayer from friends and by myself - and I'm feeling better.
What really surprises me is that I came to this understanding after reading the news and some blogs this morning.
The stock market fell almost 280 points yesterday. There were more tornadoes, this time in an area of the US where they happen but are not common, all over the world more animals died under strange circumstances, more volcanoes are threatening to erupt, Fukishima continues to spew out radiation with no end in sight and with no idea when it will actually be 'contained', and violence is breaking out or continuing all over the world (like in Yemen), sometimes in ways and places that are not expected, like on airplanes. Plus, an Islamic cleric is okaying human slavery and praising jihad (again, as usual). And to top it all off, more food is now unsafe to eat, E.coli mystery spreads concern across Europe (to say nothing of all the Genetically Modified Food now in our food supply chain!).
So, there you go - bits and pieces of all the wonderful news today. And yet - I'm feeling myself (a very Russian way of saying that!) much better today.
Thank you, thank you for your prayers. I so needed them.
Now, I need to go get dressed - it is almost noon! And then I need to get a load of wash in the washer and then get the chicken ready for the oven. We have company coming over for dinner tonight. Probably should clean up the livingroom, too - they will need a place to sit down and eat. haha!
Thursday, May 26, 2011
I was reading about the violence and death going on in Mexico, especially along the border with the US, and could not help but think of these verses:
Revelation 6:3 When the Lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” 4 Then another horse came out, a fiery red one. Its rider was given power to take peace from the earth and to make men slay each other. To him was given a large sword.
I cannot imagine living in a place that violent. We've seen things like that - a gun battle between rival gangs that killed at least 28 people - on television for years. But on tv it was always 'pretend'. This is for real. This is reality. It makes me feel a bit sick to my stomach. This is not far away Africa, where tribes fight against each other. This is America, North and Central.
Actually, when I think about it - the Indian tribes used to fight each other like that. And the pioneers used to have wars like that with the Indians. So, in reality, not much has changed after all. It's more like we lived through an unusual time of relative peace, and now are back at it.
Only more so with the weapons used today.
Sigh.
~*~*~*~*~*~
We read the news about the tornadoes all across the mid section of the United States. Wow. And these after all of the flooding that has gone on. And we read that more flooding, due to the snow melt in the Rockies, will soon begin. This is an amazing time in history. An amazing time to live. Again - wow.
I wonder when the New Madrid fault will go? Or the Cascade fault? Or the San Andreas? Or one of the many other faults, known and unknown, that criss-cross the United States? I really think it will happen 'soon'. No dates, no time tables, no guesses - just 'soon'.
And then there are the volcanoes. All across California, Oregon and Washington. Earthquake activity may indicate that something volcanic may be happening in Nevada. Wyoming has the huge Yellowstone caldera. Then there is the volcanic areas of Colorado and especially New Mexico, and there are always little tremors going on along the Colorado/New Mexico border. I think most people would be very surprised to learn how much the earth is moving under their feet!
I was surprised to learn a few days ago that the Rio Grande River flows along a rift valley. Rift valley - you know, like the Rift Valley in Africa! The earthquakes happening in Chihuahua, Mexico, are also in that rift valley. And the rift valley may be opening up just a little bit, spreading wider!?! And where does the rift start? Ha! In one of my favorite places in Colorado - the San Luis Valley, with the Sangre de Cristo mountains on the east and the San Juan mountains on the west, and to the far north, the Arkansas River canyon (on the other side of Poncha Pass - I don't know if it's actually connected to the rift, but the earth there has obviously been torn and tossed about by earthquakes in the past).
~*~*~*~*~*~
I wonder what other time in history compares? With the natural disasters and the wars and the fast changing government of freedom to government of oppression in the United States ... which part of history most closely resembles our current time period? I don't know. It is sobering to think of.
Revelation 6:3 When the Lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” 4 Then another horse came out, a fiery red one. Its rider was given power to take peace from the earth and to make men slay each other. To him was given a large sword.
I cannot imagine living in a place that violent. We've seen things like that - a gun battle between rival gangs that killed at least 28 people - on television for years. But on tv it was always 'pretend'. This is for real. This is reality. It makes me feel a bit sick to my stomach. This is not far away Africa, where tribes fight against each other. This is America, North and Central.
Actually, when I think about it - the Indian tribes used to fight each other like that. And the pioneers used to have wars like that with the Indians. So, in reality, not much has changed after all. It's more like we lived through an unusual time of relative peace, and now are back at it.
Only more so with the weapons used today.
Sigh.
We read the news about the tornadoes all across the mid section of the United States. Wow. And these after all of the flooding that has gone on. And we read that more flooding, due to the snow melt in the Rockies, will soon begin. This is an amazing time in history. An amazing time to live. Again - wow.
I wonder when the New Madrid fault will go? Or the Cascade fault? Or the San Andreas? Or one of the many other faults, known and unknown, that criss-cross the United States? I really think it will happen 'soon'. No dates, no time tables, no guesses - just 'soon'.
And then there are the volcanoes. All across California, Oregon and Washington. Earthquake activity may indicate that something volcanic may be happening in Nevada. Wyoming has the huge Yellowstone caldera. Then there is the volcanic areas of Colorado and especially New Mexico, and there are always little tremors going on along the Colorado/New Mexico border. I think most people would be very surprised to learn how much the earth is moving under their feet!
I was surprised to learn a few days ago that the Rio Grande River flows along a rift valley. Rift valley - you know, like the Rift Valley in Africa! The earthquakes happening in Chihuahua, Mexico, are also in that rift valley. And the rift valley may be opening up just a little bit, spreading wider!?! And where does the rift start? Ha! In one of my favorite places in Colorado - the San Luis Valley, with the Sangre de Cristo mountains on the east and the San Juan mountains on the west, and to the far north, the Arkansas River canyon (on the other side of Poncha Pass - I don't know if it's actually connected to the rift, but the earth there has obviously been torn and tossed about by earthquakes in the past).
I wonder what other time in history compares? With the natural disasters and the wars and the fast changing government of freedom to government of oppression in the United States ... which part of history most closely resembles our current time period? I don't know. It is sobering to think of.
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Catching Up - the Beginning
Wow - lots of things to write about today, but I think most of it will go unwritten. For now. I may be able to get back to the blog later tonight. Right now Tanya is here again, cleaning the rest of the cupboards for me.
It's thundering. I'm not sure where it's coming from because when I look out the office window to the southeast, it is partly cloudy with lots of sunshine. However, there is a "shadow" in the sunlight, like maybe a big thunderhead is beginning to spread it's wings across the sun. We'll see. The rumbling does not seem to get closer or louder - yet. {updated: Map of Icelandic volcano ash movement. How funny - the 'dulling' of the sunlight may have been/be from volcanic ash!}
I just finished reading another report on what did not happen last Saturday - the Rapture. As I read it, I became sadder and sadder. Not because the Rapture did not happen, but because of the tone of the article. Laughter at the idea of a Rapture. Mocking people who truly believe Christ will one day return. I cannot help it, I am reminded of The Days of Noah.
Genesis 6:11,12
"Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways."
Matthew 24:36-44
“No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.
“Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.
So, people are laughing, and having parties, and making fun of those who believed that on May 21 Christ would return.
Did I believer He would return on that date? NO! I did not believe it at all! Christ could return at any moment, but as Mel pointed out, it was very unlikely that Christ would return on that date simply because some man said He would.
So, what upsets me about all of this?
It is the fact that people are trampling the Name of the Lord our God in the mud. They are mocking Him. Laughing at Him. Denying that He even exists, much less is coming again.
And in some ways it makes me shudder in fear. Fear for their very souls. Fear for the wrath that will some fall upon them. It is a fearful thing, the judgement that will soon fall upon this earth and upon those who hate God.
Reminds me of that old sermon by Jonathan Edwards, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.
It's thundering. I'm not sure where it's coming from because when I look out the office window to the southeast, it is partly cloudy with lots of sunshine. However, there is a "shadow" in the sunlight, like maybe a big thunderhead is beginning to spread it's wings across the sun. We'll see. The rumbling does not seem to get closer or louder - yet. {updated: Map of Icelandic volcano ash movement. How funny - the 'dulling' of the sunlight may have been/be from volcanic ash!}
I just finished reading another report on what did not happen last Saturday - the Rapture. As I read it, I became sadder and sadder. Not because the Rapture did not happen, but because of the tone of the article. Laughter at the idea of a Rapture. Mocking people who truly believe Christ will one day return. I cannot help it, I am reminded of The Days of Noah.
"Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways."
“No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.
“Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.
So, people are laughing, and having parties, and making fun of those who believed that on May 21 Christ would return.
Did I believer He would return on that date? NO! I did not believe it at all! Christ could return at any moment, but as Mel pointed out, it was very unlikely that Christ would return on that date simply because some man said He would.
So, what upsets me about all of this?
It is the fact that people are trampling the Name of the Lord our God in the mud. They are mocking Him. Laughing at Him. Denying that He even exists, much less is coming again.
And in some ways it makes me shudder in fear. Fear for their very souls. Fear for the wrath that will some fall upon them. It is a fearful thing, the judgement that will soon fall upon this earth and upon those who hate God.
Reminds me of that old sermon by Jonathan Edwards, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.
Saturday, May 07, 2011
News and Reactions
I just read an article and I can't help it. I'm trembling inside, and maybe even on the outside as well. I begin to understand the verses that talk about people's legs turning to water in fear.
Every hand will go limp,
and every knee will become as weak as water.
Ezekiel 7:17
I read America's Last Call, by David Wilkerson yesterday (took me two days to read it, actually, and you can only read it for free on the internet - you can't download it, to read otherwise, you must buy a copy). Then today I read The Worst Mississippi River Flood Ever, in The Economic Collapse blog. These two are both written by Christian men, although the second one is not a "Christian" blog, as I understand it.
Maybe I read too much. Maybe if I stuck my head in the sand like so many other people I know, I wouldn't have 'knees weak as water' right now.
Actually, I cannot do that. It is stupid to stick your head in the sand, to not know the times in which you live, to not be ready in as much as any one can be ready for what is coming.
I truly pray that there is a rapture of the Church before the Great Tribulation begins. We are so close... so very, very close.
And the days are flying by at an amazing rate of speed. It is already the 7th of May! The year will soon be half over, and then we'll turn around and it will be 2012. Times doesn't just fly - it speeds by like an ultra-sonic jet.
So, I continue to read, to think, to pray, to understand the times.
What disturbs me now is that I feel so unready for all of this. I want it to be just a few more years off in the future. I look at my spiritual state and in some ways I'm terrified. I see so much sin in my life, 'besetting sins' that I fight against, give in to, cry over, repent of and then the battle begins again. I wonder, can a truly born again person have this continual battle over the same sins, over and over and over again? Am I really one of God's chosen, one of His elect saints? Or am I deceiving myself and the sin I cannot conquer, cannot get rid of in my life is proof that I am none of His? Oh, how that terrifies my heart! I quake inside at the thought of the judgement that is to come from God Almighty on the unrepentant and I pray, Pray! that He will have mercy on my soul.
I told Mel not long ago that I wish I had died several years ago when I was still full of confidence in my relationship with God, that I had no doubts at all over the state of my soul. When I did not struggle as I struggle now with these sins, was in fact, unaware of many of them. Life was so much simpler then! And I was so confident in my salvation, in my relationship with God.
I know in my head, and I know in my heart, that I have received the mercy of Jesus Christ's blood shed on the cross for me, that it washes away my sin, makes me white as snow, that when God looks at me He sees the work of His Son and not unregenerate me. Yet...yet! I am aware of that sin and I am aware of the times when I say - "I'm tired of trying! I'm tired of fighting it! I'll give in right now and repent again later." And I wonder ... could a true born again Believer really do that?? What of this willful sin? Is it proof that I am not who I think I am? Has my life, my confidence all been a lie all this time?
Oh, the turmoil inside sometimes is almost overwhelming!
There are times when I want to curl up in a little ball (little - ha!) in the corner of a dark room, with my hands over my head and just sleep. There are other times when I never want to read another article, another news story, another blog as long as I live. There are times when I want to just do what I want to do and let the rest of the world go to hell in a hand basket (as my mother used to say).
But, I cannot do any of that. Tomorrow I will stand up in front of a dozen or two kids and teach that that Jesus promised his disciples that he would pray for them, and by extension - us. And that means me. I am a part of that 'us' if I am truly born again.
And I feel a sense of peace come over me as I think about it - that I have a great High Priest in heaven, standing before the Father, pleading my case, making intercession for me, that I do not stand alone.
Way back when I was pregnant and getting ready to deliver, I went through classes that taught us how to breathe and use our minds to help control the pain. We were supposed to make ourselves a warm beach to lie on and imagine ourselves there. Well, in a way, that is what I do now - only I don't make it up.
I "see" Christ standing there before the throne of God, interceeding for me, telling his Father that I am one of God's chosen, washed in the blood of the Lamb, dressed in white linen, purified. I focus on Christ - I see no face, just the form of a man with the marks of crucifixion on his head and hands and feet. And something inside me
relaxes
and calms
and I want to weep
in joy
and sadness
and release
and longing.
Come quickly, Lord Jesus!
and every knee will become as weak as water.
Ezekiel 7:17
I read America's Last Call, by David Wilkerson yesterday (took me two days to read it, actually, and you can only read it for free on the internet - you can't download it, to read otherwise, you must buy a copy). Then today I read The Worst Mississippi River Flood Ever, in The Economic Collapse blog. These two are both written by Christian men, although the second one is not a "Christian" blog, as I understand it.
Maybe I read too much. Maybe if I stuck my head in the sand like so many other people I know, I wouldn't have 'knees weak as water' right now.
Actually, I cannot do that. It is stupid to stick your head in the sand, to not know the times in which you live, to not be ready in as much as any one can be ready for what is coming.
I truly pray that there is a rapture of the Church before the Great Tribulation begins. We are so close... so very, very close.
And the days are flying by at an amazing rate of speed. It is already the 7th of May! The year will soon be half over, and then we'll turn around and it will be 2012. Times doesn't just fly - it speeds by like an ultra-sonic jet.
So, I continue to read, to think, to pray, to understand the times.
What disturbs me now is that I feel so unready for all of this. I want it to be just a few more years off in the future. I look at my spiritual state and in some ways I'm terrified. I see so much sin in my life, 'besetting sins' that I fight against, give in to, cry over, repent of and then the battle begins again. I wonder, can a truly born again person have this continual battle over the same sins, over and over and over again? Am I really one of God's chosen, one of His elect saints? Or am I deceiving myself and the sin I cannot conquer, cannot get rid of in my life is proof that I am none of His? Oh, how that terrifies my heart! I quake inside at the thought of the judgement that is to come from God Almighty on the unrepentant and I pray, Pray! that He will have mercy on my soul.
I told Mel not long ago that I wish I had died several years ago when I was still full of confidence in my relationship with God, that I had no doubts at all over the state of my soul. When I did not struggle as I struggle now with these sins, was in fact, unaware of many of them. Life was so much simpler then! And I was so confident in my salvation, in my relationship with God.
I know in my head, and I know in my heart, that I have received the mercy of Jesus Christ's blood shed on the cross for me, that it washes away my sin, makes me white as snow, that when God looks at me He sees the work of His Son and not unregenerate me. Yet...yet! I am aware of that sin and I am aware of the times when I say - "I'm tired of trying! I'm tired of fighting it! I'll give in right now and repent again later." And I wonder ... could a true born again Believer really do that?? What of this willful sin? Is it proof that I am not who I think I am? Has my life, my confidence all been a lie all this time?
Oh, the turmoil inside sometimes is almost overwhelming!
There are times when I want to curl up in a little ball (little - ha!) in the corner of a dark room, with my hands over my head and just sleep. There are other times when I never want to read another article, another news story, another blog as long as I live. There are times when I want to just do what I want to do and let the rest of the world go to hell in a hand basket (as my mother used to say).
But, I cannot do any of that. Tomorrow I will stand up in front of a dozen or two kids and teach that that Jesus promised his disciples that he would pray for them, and by extension - us. And that means me. I am a part of that 'us' if I am truly born again.
And I feel a sense of peace come over me as I think about it - that I have a great High Priest in heaven, standing before the Father, pleading my case, making intercession for me, that I do not stand alone.
Way back when I was pregnant and getting ready to deliver, I went through classes that taught us how to breathe and use our minds to help control the pain. We were supposed to make ourselves a warm beach to lie on and imagine ourselves there. Well, in a way, that is what I do now - only I don't make it up.
I "see" Christ standing there before the throne of God, interceeding for me, telling his Father that I am one of God's chosen, washed in the blood of the Lamb, dressed in white linen, purified. I focus on Christ - I see no face, just the form of a man with the marks of crucifixion on his head and hands and feet. And something inside me
relaxes
and calms
and I want to weep
in joy
and sadness
and release
and longing.
Come quickly, Lord Jesus!
Thursday, May 05, 2011
More Bits n Pieces and an FO !!
According to various official astrophysics and solar research labs around the world, something very, very strange is going on in our solar system. A partial list includes the following:
•Recent solar activity highest in 8000 years
•Sun's magnetic field has decreased in size by 25%
•300% increase in galactic dust entering our solar system
•Mercury’s magnetosphere experiencing significant increases
•Venus exhibiting a 2500% increase in its “green glow”
•Mars showing a rapid appearance of clouds and ozone
•Mars observations reveal up to 50% erosion of its ice features within a 12-month period
•Jupiter plasma torus increasing; its moon Io exhibiting the same changes
•A 200% increase in the density of Io's plasma torus
•Jupiter's Disappearance of White Ovals since 1997 - recent increase in storms
•Io's ionosphere is 1000% higher
•Jupiter’s moon Europa much brighter than scientists expected
•Jupiter’s moon Gannymede is 200% brighter
•Saturn's plasma torus is 1000% more dense
•Aurorae first seen in Saturn's polar regions in recent years
•Uranus was featureless in 1996 - exhibiting huge storms since 1999
•Uranus in 2004 was also markedly brighter than in 1999
•Neptune is 40% brighter in the near-infrared range based on observations from 1996 - 2002
•Pluto observations reveal a 300% increase in atmospheric pressure
from: The Omega Letter, The Day The Grid Stands Still, Friday, September 17, 2010, Jack Kinsella - Omega Letter Editor
The above article was written almost 8 months ago. More 'signs in the heavens' have been happening since then. I wish I could go out at night and just watch the night sky. But alas, I cannot do that here in Ukraine.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Just looked at some of the recent stats on my blog. Yesterday's post, A Walk on the Wild Side, had a lot of hits. Ha ha ha! I wonder what people were looking for? The 3 names I chose for the 3 cats? The title (wild side)? Or something else. Too funny. I bet that post wasn't what any of them were looking for.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Rain, rain, yea! It started raining last night sometime just before midnight. I could hear it while sitting here reading facebook posts before going to bed. Rained off and on throughout the night, and then fairly heavy rain this morning. Now, there are still rain drops on some of the leaves, but there is a breeze and no rain falling.
Opps - spoke too soon - it actually started raining again as I was writing this!
haha - what a funny kind of day I'm having.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
So! I finished the scarf around noon today. I finished the weaving last night and cut if off the loom just before I went to bed.
I really like the way this verigated yarn turned out, using it as the weft. I used a lavendar and white warp, and a verigated and white weft, alternating the two both times (lwlwlw and vwvwvw).
This pattern is a variation of the Flower Garden Scarf, Bee Scarf and Lipstick Scarf that I did before.
It took a little bit more time to weave because I had to change the weft pattern every 6 rows. I quickly got into the rythm, though, and it went quicker and quicker as the scarf grew longer.
I like this pattern a lot and will probably do more scarves in it - or maybe even a shawl some day. However, I've already chosen my next project and it entails a completely different process in weaving the weft. :-) Will explore some color combinations and see what I come up with before I write any more about it.
I'm also planning a couple scarves from now in trying a double-weave, where the scarf will be twice as wide as I can make on the loom. I need to study it out some more and think it through some more, and then choose color(s). When I do that one, I'm planning on making two alike and then sewing them together somehow and making a shawl out of it. Thus all the need for thinking and planning before I attempt it.
I like this weaving stuff. A lot!!
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Ok, I need to go get busy with some other things. I have company coming again tonight. We'll eat a light dinner and then talk about Sunday School next fall, and then Lyena will have a zillion questions for Mel about what she's been reading in her Bible. I love these Thursday evening meetings. :-)
•Recent solar activity highest in 8000 years
•Sun's magnetic field has decreased in size by 25%
•300% increase in galactic dust entering our solar system
•Mercury’s magnetosphere experiencing significant increases
•Venus exhibiting a 2500% increase in its “green glow”
•Mars showing a rapid appearance of clouds and ozone
•Mars observations reveal up to 50% erosion of its ice features within a 12-month period
•Jupiter plasma torus increasing; its moon Io exhibiting the same changes
•A 200% increase in the density of Io's plasma torus
•Jupiter's Disappearance of White Ovals since 1997 - recent increase in storms
•Io's ionosphere is 1000% higher
•Jupiter’s moon Europa much brighter than scientists expected
•Jupiter’s moon Gannymede is 200% brighter
•Saturn's plasma torus is 1000% more dense
•Aurorae first seen in Saturn's polar regions in recent years
•Uranus was featureless in 1996 - exhibiting huge storms since 1999
•Uranus in 2004 was also markedly brighter than in 1999
•Neptune is 40% brighter in the near-infrared range based on observations from 1996 - 2002
•Pluto observations reveal a 300% increase in atmospheric pressure
from: The Omega Letter, The Day The Grid Stands Still, Friday, September 17, 2010, Jack Kinsella - Omega Letter Editor
The above article was written almost 8 months ago. More 'signs in the heavens' have been happening since then. I wish I could go out at night and just watch the night sky. But alas, I cannot do that here in Ukraine.
Just looked at some of the recent stats on my blog. Yesterday's post, A Walk on the Wild Side, had a lot of hits. Ha ha ha! I wonder what people were looking for? The 3 names I chose for the 3 cats? The title (wild side)? Or something else. Too funny. I bet that post wasn't what any of them were looking for.
Rain, rain, yea! It started raining last night sometime just before midnight. I could hear it while sitting here reading facebook posts before going to bed. Rained off and on throughout the night, and then fairly heavy rain this morning. Now, there are still rain drops on some of the leaves, but there is a breeze and no rain falling.
haha - what a funny kind of day I'm having.
So! I finished the scarf around noon today. I finished the weaving last night and cut if off the loom just before I went to bed.
I like this weaving stuff. A lot!!
Ok, I need to go get busy with some other things. I have company coming again tonight. We'll eat a light dinner and then talk about Sunday School next fall, and then Lyena will have a zillion questions for Mel about what she's been reading in her Bible. I love these Thursday evening meetings. :-)
Wednesday, May 04, 2011
Part 2 and Bit's n Pieces
Wow. I tried to post Part 1 about a dozen times, but nothing would work. Finally found a help page that actually worked for me - had to change 1 setting in blogger.
Got updates from Internet Explorer yesterday and do not like them at all. Everything at the top of the page has been switched around, changed and messed up. WHY do they do this? Why can't they leave things alone? sigh
Grumpy old lady feelings again.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Yes, it is colder in Ukraine this spring than is usual. It's in the 50's again today, same as yesterday. Breezy, but not too bad. We do have the door open and it's 71.2* in here beside the computer. Not bad. Not bad at all.
However, I'm a little disturbed over the news report I posted in Part 1. Everything seems a bit behind schedule here. Again, some people disagree with me, but I have photos from previous years that prove the trees and flowers are at least 2 weeks behind schedule for blooming. If they are that far behind, is the winter wheat behind, too? I don't know. I only know what I read in that report - Russia and Ukraine are behind in their planting of spring wheat and other crops.
It has been fairly dry, too. There was a big rain storm while we were in Kiev, but not much snow or rain at all before that, and none after (except a few sprinkles here and there - no real Rain). Only time will tell what summer is going to bring. God knows and God has a plan. That I must rest in.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
I have had the strangest dreams the past two nights. Yesterday I woke up saying over and over again in my mind: "In the name of Jesus Christ - go away! Repent and be baptized!" Those words lingered in my mind, over and over, for at least an hour after I was up and busy reading and doing things.
The dream started with me at the home I grew up in, watering the lawn and forgetting that the water was running. Caused a huge muddy mess in the front yard. Then a milk truck showed up - tanker kind, with two guys on top of it playing like they were fighting. Then the one with a cow head looked at me, laughed and spit toward me, later I realized he had actually spit on me so he could follow me. Scene change to someone's house, a knock on the door, Stirling opening it before I could get there, me pushing him back out of the way and completely filling the doorway so he couldn't see or be seen (kind of a Ukrainian sized doorway!;) ), seeing the guys from the milk truck and then others - all with wide open glazed-over eyes trying to push their way into the house. I tried to protect Stirling, shouting at them and pushing back at them, "In the name of Jesus Christ - go away! Repent and be baptized!!" over and over and over again.
I told Mel later that I really think that whole dream was demonic.
Last night/early this morning the dream was much more complicated, but I awoke with a real feeling of unease. It was totally bizarre, like some science fiction book gone crazy. Captivity/being a slave, weird angle buildings, strangely colored sky and light, tunnels, laser beams cutting through dimensions, people living alternative lives in those different dimensions, and so on and so forth. The only part I liked about the whole dream was the collection of cobalt blue items I collected during one small part of it. They were all quite pretty and quite expensive. haha!
Whew. If I could only take these dreams and turn them into books - I'd make a million dollars! :-) :-)
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
I have a lot of things I want to write about. I have a lot of things I want to read. I have a scarf on the loom almost finished and I want to finish it.
I think I'll read for a bit - and then go finish the scarf. I'll get back to this blog later this evening, if all works out correctly. :-) :-)
Got updates from Internet Explorer yesterday and do not like them at all. Everything at the top of the page has been switched around, changed and messed up. WHY do they do this? Why can't they leave things alone? sigh
Grumpy old lady feelings again.
Yes, it is colder in Ukraine this spring than is usual. It's in the 50's again today, same as yesterday. Breezy, but not too bad. We do have the door open and it's 71.2* in here beside the computer. Not bad. Not bad at all.
However, I'm a little disturbed over the news report I posted in Part 1. Everything seems a bit behind schedule here. Again, some people disagree with me, but I have photos from previous years that prove the trees and flowers are at least 2 weeks behind schedule for blooming. If they are that far behind, is the winter wheat behind, too? I don't know. I only know what I read in that report - Russia and Ukraine are behind in their planting of spring wheat and other crops.
It has been fairly dry, too. There was a big rain storm while we were in Kiev, but not much snow or rain at all before that, and none after (except a few sprinkles here and there - no real Rain). Only time will tell what summer is going to bring. God knows and God has a plan. That I must rest in.
I have had the strangest dreams the past two nights. Yesterday I woke up saying over and over again in my mind: "In the name of Jesus Christ - go away! Repent and be baptized!" Those words lingered in my mind, over and over, for at least an hour after I was up and busy reading and doing things.
The dream started with me at the home I grew up in, watering the lawn and forgetting that the water was running. Caused a huge muddy mess in the front yard. Then a milk truck showed up - tanker kind, with two guys on top of it playing like they were fighting. Then the one with a cow head looked at me, laughed and spit toward me, later I realized he had actually spit on me so he could follow me. Scene change to someone's house, a knock on the door, Stirling opening it before I could get there, me pushing him back out of the way and completely filling the doorway so he couldn't see or be seen (kind of a Ukrainian sized doorway!;) ), seeing the guys from the milk truck and then others - all with wide open glazed-over eyes trying to push their way into the house. I tried to protect Stirling, shouting at them and pushing back at them, "In the name of Jesus Christ - go away! Repent and be baptized!!" over and over and over again.
I told Mel later that I really think that whole dream was demonic.
Last night/early this morning the dream was much more complicated, but I awoke with a real feeling of unease. It was totally bizarre, like some science fiction book gone crazy. Captivity/being a slave, weird angle buildings, strangely colored sky and light, tunnels, laser beams cutting through dimensions, people living alternative lives in those different dimensions, and so on and so forth. The only part I liked about the whole dream was the collection of cobalt blue items I collected during one small part of it. They were all quite pretty and quite expensive. haha!
Whew. If I could only take these dreams and turn them into books - I'd make a million dollars! :-) :-)
I have a lot of things I want to write about. I have a lot of things I want to read. I have a scarf on the loom almost finished and I want to finish it.
I think I'll read for a bit - and then go finish the scarf. I'll get back to this blog later this evening, if all works out correctly. :-) :-)
It's Colder Than Usual in Ukraine - Part 1
Rain May Curb Grain, Oilseed Output Globally, Oil World Says, Bloomberg
By Tony C. Dreibus - May 3, 2011 4:30 PM GMT+0300
Rainfall and cold weather has delayed planting of grains and oilseeds in Canada, Russia, Ukraine and the U.S., threatening already-low global inventories, Oil World said in a report today.
In the U.S., the world's biggest exporter of corn, soybeans and wheat, heavy rains through Midwest and Plains states have made fields too wet for planting, the researcher said. Rain in Canada has delayed seeding of spring wheat and canola, and cold, wet weather has kept farmers in Russia and Ukraine from seeding spring grains, according to Hamburg-based oilseeds analysts Oil World.
"The major threat is to be seen in planting delays caused by very wet fields and local flooding" in Canada, Oil World said. "In recent weeks the low temperatures have slowed melting of a comparatively thick snow cover on already saturated fields. There is the risk of considerable additional flooding in parts of Saskatchewan and Manitoba."
About 13 percent of planned corn was sown in the U.S. as of May 1 versus 68 percent a year earlier, Department of Agriculture data show. About 3 percent of Russian grains were seeded as of April 21, about half of what was in the ground at the same time last year, according to Oil World. In Canada, canola and wheat seeding are behind the normal schedule.
"Much will depend on weather conditions in the next four weeks and how quickly fields dry out to allow farm machinery to enter and bring the seed into the ground," Oil World said. "At the moment we are quite skeptical whether the planting intentions for canola and other crops can be accomplished."
Record Food Prices
Corn futures have surged 98 percent in the past year, wheat is up 56 percent and soybeans have risen 41 percent on increased demand for raw materials. Food prices rose to a record in February on tightening supplies of grains, oilseeds and sugar, as well as firm demand for dairy products, according to the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization.
In Russia, where the country's worst drought in a half- century curbed wheat production last year, leading to an export ban that started in August, about 1 million hectares (2.47 million acres) were planted with spring grains, Oil World said. That's down from 1.7 million hectares a year earlier. Rapeseed production is "better than last year" in Russia and Ukraine, according to the report.
Deterioration in the quality of the U.S. wheat crop also may curb usable supplies globally, the researcher said. Dry weather has hurt crops in Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas, the largest producers of U.S. winter wheat.
About 41 percent of plants were rated poor or very poor compared with 7 percent a year earlier, USDA data show. In Oklahoma, 77 percent was rated poor or very poor, and in Texas, 74 percent earned the lowest ratings, the government said.
By Tony C. Dreibus - May 3, 2011 4:30 PM GMT+0300
Rainfall and cold weather has delayed planting of grains and oilseeds in Canada, Russia, Ukraine and the U.S., threatening already-low global inventories, Oil World said in a report today.
In the U.S., the world's biggest exporter of corn, soybeans and wheat, heavy rains through Midwest and Plains states have made fields too wet for planting, the researcher said. Rain in Canada has delayed seeding of spring wheat and canola, and cold, wet weather has kept farmers in Russia and Ukraine from seeding spring grains, according to Hamburg-based oilseeds analysts Oil World.
"The major threat is to be seen in planting delays caused by very wet fields and local flooding" in Canada, Oil World said. "In recent weeks the low temperatures have slowed melting of a comparatively thick snow cover on already saturated fields. There is the risk of considerable additional flooding in parts of Saskatchewan and Manitoba."
About 13 percent of planned corn was sown in the U.S. as of May 1 versus 68 percent a year earlier, Department of Agriculture data show. About 3 percent of Russian grains were seeded as of April 21, about half of what was in the ground at the same time last year, according to Oil World. In Canada, canola and wheat seeding are behind the normal schedule.
"Much will depend on weather conditions in the next four weeks and how quickly fields dry out to allow farm machinery to enter and bring the seed into the ground," Oil World said. "At the moment we are quite skeptical whether the planting intentions for canola and other crops can be accomplished."
Record Food Prices
Corn futures have surged 98 percent in the past year, wheat is up 56 percent and soybeans have risen 41 percent on increased demand for raw materials. Food prices rose to a record in February on tightening supplies of grains, oilseeds and sugar, as well as firm demand for dairy products, according to the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization.
In Russia, where the country's worst drought in a half- century curbed wheat production last year, leading to an export ban that started in August, about 1 million hectares (2.47 million acres) were planted with spring grains, Oil World said. That's down from 1.7 million hectares a year earlier. Rapeseed production is "better than last year" in Russia and Ukraine, according to the report.
Deterioration in the quality of the U.S. wheat crop also may curb usable supplies globally, the researcher said. Dry weather has hurt crops in Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas, the largest producers of U.S. winter wheat.
About 41 percent of plants were rated poor or very poor compared with 7 percent a year earlier, USDA data show. In Oklahoma, 77 percent was rated poor or very poor, and in Texas, 74 percent earned the lowest ratings, the government said.
Monday, May 02, 2011
Bits n Pieces
As I posted on facebook earlier this evening: "while washing dishes a bit ago, I was thinking about the lack of leeks and celery at the supermarket over the past 2 or 3 weeks, and then it dawned on me: where do they most likely come from? Imported from ... Egypt? Turkey? And what is going on there??? Duh. I wonder if we'll get them here again this year? Maybe from Israel?"
I miss them a lot. I grew accustomed to going to the supermarket and finding them there. I felt more than a bit down after going out to "the big Oskar" today and not finding any special veggies. They usually have a better selection there than at our closer Oskar - but not today. Not good. Not good at all. This bothers me, somewhere deep inside.
Maybe because of this second facebook comment I posted just before starting this blog post: "Why do I feel so cynical over the news about Osama bin Laden? Maybe because I think this may be the end of the beginning, not the end of the end that everyone thinks it is?"
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Hmmm - got a little carried away up there with the ~*~*~'s. :-)
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
My meloncholy feelings this afternoon/evening may be partially due to the fact that as long as there is unrest in the Middle East, then we will probably never get leeks here again.
Somehow I feel like I belong in the book of Exodus, complaining at Moses.
At least we still have our garlic and onions!!!
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
After we got home from the supermarket, I watched a Hal Lindsay program from yesterday. Very interesting stuff. Wonder how much of it is true.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
I found out yesterday that the church picnic will be held over across the Dniper River with 3 other churches joining us next Monday.
And that a couple hired buses will pick us up at the church and take us to the picnic area. And that it will be out in "the forest" (which is wonderful) and will last 7.5 hours (which sounds like purgatory to me), and that there are no tables, or chairs (yikes! gotta bring your own) and no toilets - you go find a bush (ok, change that from purgatory, to hell).
I do not think I'm going. No - I am definitely not going. Sorry Charlie, etc. etc.
I can handle the forest. I can handle the lack of tables and chairs. I can even handle the lack of toilet and using the area behind a bush if needed. What I cannot handle is SEVEN AND ONE HALF HOURS of this. In the sun (yes, it's a "forest" - a man-made forest with the trees neatly spaced so many meters apart). With mosquitoes. And flies. And lots of people. The bus will drop us off and then 7 1/2 hours later, return to pick us back up.
Picnics in forests should abide by certain rules: lots and lots of shade, cool breezes, a minimum of bugs and no more the 6-10 people, preferably family members that you love to be around, and also preferably - a beautiful view to look at (lake, stream, mountain, valley, sequoias, Grand Canyon, something along these lines).
Oh - and hot dogs and roasted marshmallows and s'mores. Not hunks of meat stuck on a wire and partially cooked.
Ei yi yi.
I feel like a grouchy old lady.
I feel like a grouchy old lady with arthritis.
I feel like a grouch old lady with arthritis and bad breath.
That's what I feel like right now. :P
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
So, the "tennis shoes in a dryer" are at it again, boomba, boomba boomba - electric drum machine. Tear my hair out. I hope it's not going to be like this all summer....... I think they live next door to my office room. It's not so horrible in the livingroom as it is in here.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
There is something going on in Chihauhau, Mexico. Well, actually under Chihauhau, Mexico. I wonder what it is?
Four (count them - 4) earthquakes in the past week. In a place that has never had a recorded earthquake.
Plus there was a 2.5 in Minnesota this past week. Minnesota?? Weird.
Magnitude 2.5
Date-Time Friday, April 29, 2011 at 07:20:13 UTC
Friday, April 29, 2011 at 02:20:13 AM at epicenter
Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones
Location 45.884°N, 95.465°W
Depth 5 km (3.1 miles) set by location program
Region MINNESOTA
Distances 64 km (39 miles) SE of Fergus Falls, Minnesota
90 km (55 miles) NNW of Willmar, Minnesota
97 km (60 miles) ESE of Wahpeton, North Dakota
205 km (127 miles) WNW of ST. PAUL, Minnesota
Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 15 km (9.3 miles); depth fixed by location program
Parameters NST= 6, Nph= 6, Dmin=220.7 km, Rmss=1.17 sec, Gp=151°,
M-type="Nuttli" surface wave magnitude (mbLg), Version=1
Source USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)
Event ID us2011kha1
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Yes, I'm feeling down tonight. Beautiful day, though - warm enough to be really hot while waiting in the check-out line at Oskar, but cooler breezes on the street. Beautiful sunshine, green leaves and blue sky. And the lilacs are blooming. Had to charge the battery on my camera or I'd post a photo of some today. Why I'm feeling blah, I don't know for sure. Lots of little things. But lots more little things to feel good over - so I don't know.
Guess I should go read or work on my weaving. I almost wrote "and/or work on my weaving" but I'm not sure I can read and weave at the same time.....
I miss them a lot. I grew accustomed to going to the supermarket and finding them there. I felt more than a bit down after going out to "the big Oskar" today and not finding any special veggies. They usually have a better selection there than at our closer Oskar - but not today. Not good. Not good at all. This bothers me, somewhere deep inside.
Maybe because of this second facebook comment I posted just before starting this blog post: "Why do I feel so cynical over the news about Osama bin Laden? Maybe because I think this may be the end of the beginning, not the end of the end that everyone thinks it is?"
Hmmm - got a little carried away up there with the ~*~*~'s. :-)
My meloncholy feelings this afternoon/evening may be partially due to the fact that as long as there is unrest in the Middle East, then we will probably never get leeks here again.
Somehow I feel like I belong in the book of Exodus, complaining at Moses.
At least we still have our garlic and onions!!!
After we got home from the supermarket, I watched a Hal Lindsay program from yesterday. Very interesting stuff. Wonder how much of it is true.
I found out yesterday that the church picnic will be held over across the Dniper River with 3 other churches joining us next Monday.
And that a couple hired buses will pick us up at the church and take us to the picnic area. And that it will be out in "the forest" (which is wonderful) and will last 7.5 hours (which sounds like purgatory to me), and that there are no tables, or chairs (yikes! gotta bring your own) and no toilets - you go find a bush (ok, change that from purgatory, to hell).
I do not think I'm going. No - I am definitely not going. Sorry Charlie, etc. etc.
I can handle the forest. I can handle the lack of tables and chairs. I can even handle the lack of toilet and using the area behind a bush if needed. What I cannot handle is SEVEN AND ONE HALF HOURS of this. In the sun (yes, it's a "forest" - a man-made forest with the trees neatly spaced so many meters apart). With mosquitoes. And flies. And lots of people. The bus will drop us off and then 7 1/2 hours later, return to pick us back up.
Picnics in forests should abide by certain rules: lots and lots of shade, cool breezes, a minimum of bugs and no more the 6-10 people, preferably family members that you love to be around, and also preferably - a beautiful view to look at (lake, stream, mountain, valley, sequoias, Grand Canyon, something along these lines).
Oh - and hot dogs and roasted marshmallows and s'mores. Not hunks of meat stuck on a wire and partially cooked.
Ei yi yi.
I feel like a grouchy old lady.
I feel like a grouchy old lady with arthritis.
I feel like a grouch old lady with arthritis and bad breath.
That's what I feel like right now. :P
So, the "tennis shoes in a dryer" are at it again, boomba, boomba boomba - electric drum machine. Tear my hair out. I hope it's not going to be like this all summer....... I think they live next door to my office room. It's not so horrible in the livingroom as it is in here.
There is something going on in Chihauhau, Mexico. Well, actually under Chihauhau, Mexico. I wonder what it is?
Four (count them - 4) earthquakes in the past week. In a place that has never had a recorded earthquake. Plus there was a 2.5 in Minnesota this past week. Minnesota?? Weird.
Magnitude 2.5
Date-Time Friday, April 29, 2011 at 07:20:13 UTC
Friday, April 29, 2011 at 02:20:13 AM at epicenter
Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones
Location 45.884°N, 95.465°W
Depth 5 km (3.1 miles) set by location program
Region MINNESOTA
Distances 64 km (39 miles) SE of Fergus Falls, Minnesota
90 km (55 miles) NNW of Willmar, Minnesota
97 km (60 miles) ESE of Wahpeton, North Dakota
205 km (127 miles) WNW of ST. PAUL, Minnesota
Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 15 km (9.3 miles); depth fixed by location program
Parameters NST= 6, Nph= 6, Dmin=220.7 km, Rmss=1.17 sec, Gp=151°,
M-type="Nuttli" surface wave magnitude (mbLg), Version=1
Source USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)
Event ID us2011kha1
Yes, I'm feeling down tonight. Beautiful day, though - warm enough to be really hot while waiting in the check-out line at Oskar, but cooler breezes on the street. Beautiful sunshine, green leaves and blue sky. And the lilacs are blooming. Had to charge the battery on my camera or I'd post a photo of some today. Why I'm feeling blah, I don't know for sure. Lots of little things. But lots more little things to feel good over - so I don't know.
Guess I should go read or work on my weaving. I almost wrote "and/or work on my weaving" but I'm not sure I can read and weave at the same time.....
Friday, April 29, 2011
Keeping My Eye On These Since They Started:
(bold emphasis mine)
4.3 quake rattles Chihuahua, West Texas
by Diana Washington Valdez \ El Paso Times
Posted: 04/29/2011 12:59:31 AM MDT
A 4.3-magnitude earthquake shook part of West Texas and Northern Chihuahua, Mexico, late Wednesday, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
The temblor was centered in the state of Chihuahua about 40 miles south of Fort Hancock, Texas, said Aaron Velasco, a seismologist and chairman of the Geology Department at the University of Texas at El Paso.
UTEP has a seismograph that records seismic activity.
Velasco said the earthquake occurred in an area that includes a valley used for agriculture and some mountains.
The earthquake began just before 11 p.m. Wednesday and emanated from about 6.2 miles deep in the earth. The epicenter's region is about 84 miles southeast of El Paso.
Velasco said the shaking took place in a region that does not appear to have a history of significant earthquake activity.
"There was a whole sequence of events," he said. "There was a 4.3 and a 4.1 earthquake and six to seven smaller ones. We're going to study this further."
Diana Washington Valdez may be reached at dvaldez@elpasotimes.com; 546-6140.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Recent Nevada Earthquake Swarm Mapped Apr 28, 2011 12:31 PM ET
By OurAmazingPlanet Staff
Credit: Robert Simmon/NASA
For the past several weeks, a swarm of earthquakes has shaken the ground near Hawthorne, Nevada, according to a NASA statement. The small- and medium-sized earthquakes are concentrated near Buller Mountain, in an area of about 10 square kilometers (4 square miles). Over 400 earthquakes above magnitude 1.0 have occurred in the area since April 10, up to a magnitude of 4.6.
This map shows earthquake locations (white circles) from March 5, 2011, through the early morning of April 27, superimposed on a natural-color satellite image from September 19, 2002. At low elevations the lightly vegetated land is tan, while the Wassuk Range is covered in dark green forest. Several abandoned mines in the area are visible as bright scars on the landscape, and the lava flows of Mud Springs Volcano are dark gray. The image was acquired by the Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) aboard Landsat 7.
Although the earthquake swarm is adjacent to the Aurora-Bodie Volcanic Field, the earthquakes are tectonic in origin, not volcanic, and do not signal an impending eruption. Geologists distinguish between tectonic and volcanic earthquakes by looking at the waveforms recorded by seismographs. High-frequency events with a sharp onset—like a drum beat—are tectonic. Earthquakes that are long lasting and low- or medium-frequency—like a sustained note—are likely to be volcanic.
The Hawthorne earthquake swarm is located in the Basin and Range geologic province. The Basin and Range is an area of flat, low elevation valleys situated between linear mountain ranges, that stretches from the Sierra Nevada in the west to central Utah in the east. This complex topography is caused by uplift, stretching, and thinning of the North American crust. The stretching crust results in the frequent earthquakes and occasional volcanism in the area.
4.3 quake rattles Chihuahua, West Texas
by Diana Washington Valdez \ El Paso Times
Posted: 04/29/2011 12:59:31 AM MDT
A 4.3-magnitude earthquake shook part of West Texas and Northern Chihuahua, Mexico, late Wednesday, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
The temblor was centered in the state of Chihuahua about 40 miles south of Fort Hancock, Texas, said Aaron Velasco, a seismologist and chairman of the Geology Department at the University of Texas at El Paso.
UTEP has a seismograph that records seismic activity.
Velasco said the earthquake occurred in an area that includes a valley used for agriculture and some mountains.
The earthquake began just before 11 p.m. Wednesday and emanated from about 6.2 miles deep in the earth. The epicenter's region is about 84 miles southeast of El Paso.
Velasco said the shaking took place in a region that does not appear to have a history of significant earthquake activity.
"There was a whole sequence of events," he said. "There was a 4.3 and a 4.1 earthquake and six to seven smaller ones. We're going to study this further."
Diana Washington Valdez may be reached at dvaldez@elpasotimes.com; 546-6140.
Recent Nevada Earthquake Swarm Mapped Apr 28, 2011 12:31 PM ET
By OurAmazingPlanet Staff
Credit: Robert Simmon/NASA
For the past several weeks, a swarm of earthquakes has shaken the ground near Hawthorne, Nevada, according to a NASA statement. The small- and medium-sized earthquakes are concentrated near Buller Mountain, in an area of about 10 square kilometers (4 square miles). Over 400 earthquakes above magnitude 1.0 have occurred in the area since April 10, up to a magnitude of 4.6.
This map shows earthquake locations (white circles) from March 5, 2011, through the early morning of April 27, superimposed on a natural-color satellite image from September 19, 2002. At low elevations the lightly vegetated land is tan, while the Wassuk Range is covered in dark green forest. Several abandoned mines in the area are visible as bright scars on the landscape, and the lava flows of Mud Springs Volcano are dark gray. The image was acquired by the Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) aboard Landsat 7.
Although the earthquake swarm is adjacent to the Aurora-Bodie Volcanic Field, the earthquakes are tectonic in origin, not volcanic, and do not signal an impending eruption. Geologists distinguish between tectonic and volcanic earthquakes by looking at the waveforms recorded by seismographs. High-frequency events with a sharp onset—like a drum beat—are tectonic. Earthquakes that are long lasting and low- or medium-frequency—like a sustained note—are likely to be volcanic.
The Hawthorne earthquake swarm is located in the Basin and Range geologic province. The Basin and Range is an area of flat, low elevation valleys situated between linear mountain ranges, that stretches from the Sierra Nevada in the west to central Utah in the east. This complex topography is caused by uplift, stretching, and thinning of the North American crust. The stretching crust results in the frequent earthquakes and occasional volcanism in the area.
Thursday, April 28, 2011
David Wilkerson - 1931-2011
From a friends' facebook post: Rev. Wilkerson, author of "The Cross and the Switchblade," founder of Teen Challenge and the Times Square Church, Manhattan, was killed in a head-on collision yesterday. This link is to his blog and may be the last words he wrote. "Blessed are those that do believe and have not seen" (John 20:29). Yes. He can now add, and "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord.." (Revelation 14:13) David Wilkerson Today
I am grieving the death of this man, a man that to my knowledge I had never met. (I met a lot of people over the years while working at the Young Life International Service Center, so it is possible I met him years and years ago and just don't remember.) I have read his book, The Cross and the Switchblade, I've listened to some of his sermons on YouTube and I've read parts of his blog over the past 2 or 3 years. And I know, without a shadow of a doubt, that this man prayed for America. Agonized and shed many tears for the sin of America. He prophecied a coming judegement, America's Last Call, which is available to read online, but cannot be printed (it must be purchased from World Challege to print it unfortunately). I highly recommend reading it.
I wonder, who will step forward to stand in the gap? Who will take his place, praying for America? Praying for the church? Agonizing over the sin so prevelant around us?
Yes, a man I never met - and I mourn his passing. Mourn because I suddenly feel a cold wind of exposure that was not there before.
Who will stand in his place? Lord, please raise someone up! We need another Daniel! We need another Nehemiah! We need another David Wilkerson!
It Has Already Begun
Reading the news this morning and wondering when America is going to wake up and realize that she is under God's judgement.
Extreme snow falls
Extreme tornado outbreaks
Extreme cold
Extreme heat waves
High winds for weeks and months
Raging wildfires
Drought
Floods
Crop failures
Rising food and gas prices
Failing dollar
Financial collapse indicated by housing market and unemployment rate
Dead fish washing up on river banks, lake and sea shores
Dead birds falling from trees and sky
Violence of all kinds increasing all over the country
I sit at my little computer here in our little apartment half way around the world and read the news, from several different sources, both secular and Christian.
I pause and look up. Everything looks so peaceful outside the window. Sunshine highlights new leaves on the trees, a gentle breeze blows, birds chirp, people chat together while sitting on benches in front of our building. Peaceful today. Yet - there is still the sence of waiting, of anticipation, of the calm before the storm.
Something is brewing. Something is going to happen. It's only a matter of a short time.
Father in heaven - protect Your children. Give us courage. Give us absolute trust in You. Give us strength to remain faithful. Give us perseverance, the ability to Stand Firm until the end.
Extreme snow falls
Extreme tornado outbreaks
Extreme cold
Extreme heat waves
High winds for weeks and months
Raging wildfires
Drought
Floods
Crop failures
Rising food and gas prices
Failing dollar
Financial collapse indicated by housing market and unemployment rate
Dead fish washing up on river banks, lake and sea shores
Dead birds falling from trees and sky
Violence of all kinds increasing all over the country
I sit at my little computer here in our little apartment half way around the world and read the news, from several different sources, both secular and Christian.
I pause and look up. Everything looks so peaceful outside the window. Sunshine highlights new leaves on the trees, a gentle breeze blows, birds chirp, people chat together while sitting on benches in front of our building. Peaceful today. Yet - there is still the sence of waiting, of anticipation, of the calm before the storm.
Something is brewing. Something is going to happen. It's only a matter of a short time.
Father in heaven - protect Your children. Give us courage. Give us absolute trust in You. Give us strength to remain faithful. Give us perseverance, the ability to Stand Firm until the end.
Monday, April 25, 2011
A Few Thoughts
Wow! I think it's been a week since I last posted. Life has been happening at what seems like an accelerated pace. :-)
Last week was really busy - home from Kiev on Saturday, Church w/teaching Sunday school on Sunday, general life stuff on Monday and Tuesday, Seder service at church on Wednesday, more general life stuff on Thursday, Good Friday service on Friday, dinner with Melinda and Irina on Saturday, Easter yesterday morning with team Easter dinner in the evening. We stayed way later than we should have - didn't get home until after 11pm! First time for that.
Got a lot of embroidery done on the blanket with many thoughts and prayers for the recipient while working on it. I had a goal of a certain section being finished and I'll reach that goal later today. Then - I'll rewarp the little loom and make another scarf. It's taken me a while to decide what I want to try next - yarn combination and pattern.
I read a blog, Crazy As A Loom (Sue introduced me to it!) and the writer is happy weaving rugs all day long for weeks. She also does placemats, shawls and tote bags, but mostly rugs. She has a little shop she sells them in, over the internet, and apparently she does pretty well with it.
I don't think I could do that. It's one of my flaws - I will do something over and over until I'm heartily sick of it - and then, I need something NEW! Which is why I'm trying to space out the weaving with embroidery - that way I won't get "heartily sick" of either one! :) haha. But it's true - once I start on something, I could work on it for hours - days, even - and then, I'm DONE with it. At least for awhile. That's part of the reason it took me almost 10 years to do one cross-stitch project. Would have taken my sister 3 or 4 weeks, I'm sure, but after working on it for a week or so, it went into the "I don't want to look at this again!" pile/stack/bag of similar items and disappeared. Disappeared until I was looking through my stash of UFO's and there it was! I have 3 other projects right now that are waiting until the blanket is finished, and then I'm going to finish one of them. So, I'm pacing myself - trying to pace myself! - so the blanket doesn't end up in that stack, too. I think it's going to be a long while before I get tired of weaving, tho, simply because there are so many different things I can do with even this little loom. Each scarf right now is a whole new adventure!
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
I read the news today and am filled with an incredible sense of sadness. I don't think the American public is taking this disaster in Japan seriously enough. I know talking with people here it's all just kind of "ho, hum, another earthquake, another nuclear disaster, the media tells us it's not that bad, yawn". And all the while tons of radioactive water and air is spewing out of those reactors with no end in sight.
It's dangerous to walk in the rain now.
It's dangerous to drink milk now.
It's dangerous to eat certain foods now.
It's dangerous to breathe now.
It's dangerous to simply be alive and live now.
A new kind of danger - one we can't see, taste, feel or smell. Yet it falls all around us, in individual rain drops, in that bite of cheese you just ate, in that deep breath of fresh mountain air you drew deep into your lungs.
My grandchildren will never know the pleasure of being safe from the world around them. Not because they are afraid of war or a "bad guy", but because the actual physical earth is poisoned.
No, I don't think people are taking this seriously enough. The knowledge is too difficult to live with. It's easier to ignore it, pretend it doesn't exist.
I am so thankful that I believe God is sovereign, that none of this is an accident. If I truly believed that other way - what reason would there be for even trying to go on living? Maybe that is why we read so often over the past few years about a father or mother killing all of their children and then themselves. They have no hope in the incredibly horrible world.
But I have hope - in Jesus Christ. And He promised never to leave me, never to foresake me. He promised that He would provide for my every need. And more than that, He promised me that when I die I will go to heaven, that He is preparing a place for me there, and that He will give me, and all Believers, a new heaven and a new earth, totally free from sin and it's effect.
I long more and more for heaven. I'm hungry to be with my Savior! I don't want to die, but I am not afraid to die. Strange, but it can be said this way: I'm not afraid to live, I am not afraid to die.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Well, I guess I'll go get dressed for the day (finally!), which means I need to stop writing.
Last week was really busy - home from Kiev on Saturday, Church w/teaching Sunday school on Sunday, general life stuff on Monday and Tuesday, Seder service at church on Wednesday, more general life stuff on Thursday, Good Friday service on Friday, dinner with Melinda and Irina on Saturday, Easter yesterday morning with team Easter dinner in the evening. We stayed way later than we should have - didn't get home until after 11pm! First time for that.
Got a lot of embroidery done on the blanket with many thoughts and prayers for the recipient while working on it. I had a goal of a certain section being finished and I'll reach that goal later today. Then - I'll rewarp the little loom and make another scarf. It's taken me a while to decide what I want to try next - yarn combination and pattern.
I read a blog, Crazy As A Loom (Sue introduced me to it!) and the writer is happy weaving rugs all day long for weeks. She also does placemats, shawls and tote bags, but mostly rugs. She has a little shop she sells them in, over the internet, and apparently she does pretty well with it.
I don't think I could do that. It's one of my flaws - I will do something over and over until I'm heartily sick of it - and then, I need something NEW! Which is why I'm trying to space out the weaving with embroidery - that way I won't get "heartily sick" of either one! :) haha. But it's true - once I start on something, I could work on it for hours - days, even - and then, I'm DONE with it. At least for awhile. That's part of the reason it took me almost 10 years to do one cross-stitch project. Would have taken my sister 3 or 4 weeks, I'm sure, but after working on it for a week or so, it went into the "I don't want to look at this again!" pile/stack/bag of similar items and disappeared. Disappeared until I was looking through my stash of UFO's and there it was! I have 3 other projects right now that are waiting until the blanket is finished, and then I'm going to finish one of them. So, I'm pacing myself - trying to pace myself! - so the blanket doesn't end up in that stack, too. I think it's going to be a long while before I get tired of weaving, tho, simply because there are so many different things I can do with even this little loom. Each scarf right now is a whole new adventure!
I read the news today and am filled with an incredible sense of sadness. I don't think the American public is taking this disaster in Japan seriously enough. I know talking with people here it's all just kind of "ho, hum, another earthquake, another nuclear disaster, the media tells us it's not that bad, yawn". And all the while tons of radioactive water and air is spewing out of those reactors with no end in sight.
It's dangerous to walk in the rain now.
It's dangerous to drink milk now.
It's dangerous to eat certain foods now.
It's dangerous to breathe now.
It's dangerous to simply be alive and live now.
A new kind of danger - one we can't see, taste, feel or smell. Yet it falls all around us, in individual rain drops, in that bite of cheese you just ate, in that deep breath of fresh mountain air you drew deep into your lungs.
My grandchildren will never know the pleasure of being safe from the world around them. Not because they are afraid of war or a "bad guy", but because the actual physical earth is poisoned.
No, I don't think people are taking this seriously enough. The knowledge is too difficult to live with. It's easier to ignore it, pretend it doesn't exist.
I am so thankful that I believe God is sovereign, that none of this is an accident. If I truly believed that other way - what reason would there be for even trying to go on living? Maybe that is why we read so often over the past few years about a father or mother killing all of their children and then themselves. They have no hope in the incredibly horrible world.
But I have hope - in Jesus Christ. And He promised never to leave me, never to foresake me. He promised that He would provide for my every need. And more than that, He promised me that when I die I will go to heaven, that He is preparing a place for me there, and that He will give me, and all Believers, a new heaven and a new earth, totally free from sin and it's effect.
I long more and more for heaven. I'm hungry to be with my Savior! I don't want to die, but I am not afraid to die. Strange, but it can be said this way: I'm not afraid to live, I am not afraid to die.
Well, I guess I'll go get dressed for the day (finally!), which means I need to stop writing.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Waiting
The news is not good this morning, altho I've been expecting it. Japan. Radiation levels. Price increases on food and gasoline.
It goes on and on.
Yesterday on the way over to the church, while we were waiting for the trolleybus at the bus stop, the traffic on our main road was loud, busy and very high in pollutants (the air stank). When we returned from visiting Ira last night around 6:30, we got off across the street from that stop. There were absolutely NO cars coming from the direction we had just come, and there was one marshrutka and one other vehicle coming from the opposite direction. Very quiet. Eerily quiet. I didn't say anything to Mel, but I felt it, deep down inside my inner being.
Sometimes I wonder what it is that I "feel".
Someone commented to me recently that I always seem to be aware of earthquakes - and that is true. A year ago January, we stood in a pull-out on the side of the road in Washington State, and I wondered if we were going to have an earthquake. I "felt something", like an energy coursing through my whole body. Of course, nothing happened. We were standing in an area where if the view had been clear, we would have seen Mt. Baker, a slumbering volcano. I chalked it up to nerves from knowing what was hidden in the fog. It was only later in the evening when we returned to the hotel room that we learned of the earthquake in Haiti earlier in the day. It really is possible that I felt some of the waves that circled the earth after that quake, P waves and S waves and all that stuff I find so interesting but really don't completely understand. They showed up on monitors all over the world after Haiti, and now again after Japan (each of the bigger aftershocks also show up).
I also am very aware of other things that people don't pay a whole lot of attention to. Like a street that is normally bustling with people and vehicles - and isn't.
There is a certain kind of "stillness" in the 'atmosphere'. I have a sense that the earth is waiting for something to happen. That as the earth waits, it affects people and people are reacting in different ways.
We watched Sasha for Ira last night as she ran out and got a few things at the market. When she returned, she kind of laughed and said in almost disbelief, "Everything was 2 griven more today." Now, I don't think everything was 2 griven more yesterday at the market, but I understood what she was saying. We'd talked about the rising prices earlier in general conversation soon after we'd arrived, and she commented that she hadn't paid that much attention recently (I think too much else is going on in her life right now). A couple hours later she was at the market and saw for herself and realized what we were talking about. The reason our main street was so quiet is because gas is so expensive now, certain food prices are skyrocketing, and they are raising the prices on marshrutkas and I would guess that trolleybus prices will also rise. People can not afford it, people cannot afford to travel as much.
My tutor asked for her pay last week. I usually pay her once a month since it is simpler for both of us, and gives her a larger amount each month to use rather than a little bit here and a little bit there. Last week, however, she told me she needed the two weeks right then - she had absolutely NO money to live on until she got her pension/pay from her job later this month. I keep scraps for her cats, too - fat skimmed off meat, juice from canned tuna, skin and gristle from chicken I've boned, etc. I had a full pickle jar for her and she said 'thank you' to me about 5 times. A lot of her income goes for feeding her own cats plus cats and dogs on the street.
Fewer people walk by on the street below our balcony than usual. Maybe as spring fully arrives (it's been cold and wet so far) and summer quickly follows more people will be out on the streets. More than just the ones who go through the dumpsters every day. Every day, at various times of the day, I can look out and see usually men, but quite often a woman, going through the garbage, pulling out bottles and other usable items.
I can't help it. I don't know what it is - I only know that I "feel" it, whatever it is. Waiting. A pause in the norm. A deep, slow intake of cosmic breath. A silent sigh. A sudden shuddering. A continual silent trembling. An awareness that the air we now breathe is poisonous as never before, that the food we now consume may kill us instead of nourish us, that the water we drink may look clean and pure but in the long run is deadly.
I've been told it's not true, that I exaggerate, that I'm imagining things, that the other person doesn't believe it, that I don't trust God enough, and so forth and so on until I just don't say what I'm thinking or what I'm feeling nearly as much as I used to. Oh, I tell Mel quite often. He listens to me and if he thinks I'm nuts, well, he is kind and simply listens (I do love my husband! For many reasons!). Sometimes we have lively discussions about it all - and I need that. I don't need to be immediately shot down, I need to be able to 'work it out' somehow. Sometimes I think the other person I may be talking to is just simply afraid and doesn't want to even think about it. I can understand that. Doesn't make the problem or situation go away, but I do understand it.
So, we start the growing season and friends who usually have a huge garden have not been able to plant anything this year at all due to extenuating circumstances in their family that requires them to be gone for long periods right now. Food prices increase - they don't have a garden this year. Ouch. Spring has been very cold and wet. We'll see what happens.
For now, I trust in God. Jesus Christ is returning soon, oh so very soon! I am so thankful that we have His promises. Come quickly, Lord Jesus!
It goes on and on.
Yesterday on the way over to the church, while we were waiting for the trolleybus at the bus stop, the traffic on our main road was loud, busy and very high in pollutants (the air stank). When we returned from visiting Ira last night around 6:30, we got off across the street from that stop. There were absolutely NO cars coming from the direction we had just come, and there was one marshrutka and one other vehicle coming from the opposite direction. Very quiet. Eerily quiet. I didn't say anything to Mel, but I felt it, deep down inside my inner being.
Sometimes I wonder what it is that I "feel".
Someone commented to me recently that I always seem to be aware of earthquakes - and that is true. A year ago January, we stood in a pull-out on the side of the road in Washington State, and I wondered if we were going to have an earthquake. I "felt something", like an energy coursing through my whole body. Of course, nothing happened. We were standing in an area where if the view had been clear, we would have seen Mt. Baker, a slumbering volcano. I chalked it up to nerves from knowing what was hidden in the fog. It was only later in the evening when we returned to the hotel room that we learned of the earthquake in Haiti earlier in the day. It really is possible that I felt some of the waves that circled the earth after that quake, P waves and S waves and all that stuff I find so interesting but really don't completely understand. They showed up on monitors all over the world after Haiti, and now again after Japan (each of the bigger aftershocks also show up).
I also am very aware of other things that people don't pay a whole lot of attention to. Like a street that is normally bustling with people and vehicles - and isn't.
There is a certain kind of "stillness" in the 'atmosphere'. I have a sense that the earth is waiting for something to happen. That as the earth waits, it affects people and people are reacting in different ways.
We watched Sasha for Ira last night as she ran out and got a few things at the market. When she returned, she kind of laughed and said in almost disbelief, "Everything was 2 griven more today." Now, I don't think everything was 2 griven more yesterday at the market, but I understood what she was saying. We'd talked about the rising prices earlier in general conversation soon after we'd arrived, and she commented that she hadn't paid that much attention recently (I think too much else is going on in her life right now). A couple hours later she was at the market and saw for herself and realized what we were talking about. The reason our main street was so quiet is because gas is so expensive now, certain food prices are skyrocketing, and they are raising the prices on marshrutkas and I would guess that trolleybus prices will also rise. People can not afford it, people cannot afford to travel as much.
My tutor asked for her pay last week. I usually pay her once a month since it is simpler for both of us, and gives her a larger amount each month to use rather than a little bit here and a little bit there. Last week, however, she told me she needed the two weeks right then - she had absolutely NO money to live on until she got her pension/pay from her job later this month. I keep scraps for her cats, too - fat skimmed off meat, juice from canned tuna, skin and gristle from chicken I've boned, etc. I had a full pickle jar for her and she said 'thank you' to me about 5 times. A lot of her income goes for feeding her own cats plus cats and dogs on the street.
Fewer people walk by on the street below our balcony than usual. Maybe as spring fully arrives (it's been cold and wet so far) and summer quickly follows more people will be out on the streets. More than just the ones who go through the dumpsters every day. Every day, at various times of the day, I can look out and see usually men, but quite often a woman, going through the garbage, pulling out bottles and other usable items.
I can't help it. I don't know what it is - I only know that I "feel" it, whatever it is. Waiting. A pause in the norm. A deep, slow intake of cosmic breath. A silent sigh. A sudden shuddering. A continual silent trembling. An awareness that the air we now breathe is poisonous as never before, that the food we now consume may kill us instead of nourish us, that the water we drink may look clean and pure but in the long run is deadly.
I've been told it's not true, that I exaggerate, that I'm imagining things, that the other person doesn't believe it, that I don't trust God enough, and so forth and so on until I just don't say what I'm thinking or what I'm feeling nearly as much as I used to. Oh, I tell Mel quite often. He listens to me and if he thinks I'm nuts, well, he is kind and simply listens (I do love my husband! For many reasons!). Sometimes we have lively discussions about it all - and I need that. I don't need to be immediately shot down, I need to be able to 'work it out' somehow. Sometimes I think the other person I may be talking to is just simply afraid and doesn't want to even think about it. I can understand that. Doesn't make the problem or situation go away, but I do understand it.
So, we start the growing season and friends who usually have a huge garden have not been able to plant anything this year at all due to extenuating circumstances in their family that requires them to be gone for long periods right now. Food prices increase - they don't have a garden this year. Ouch. Spring has been very cold and wet. We'll see what happens.
For now, I trust in God. Jesus Christ is returning soon, oh so very soon! I am so thankful that we have His promises. Come quickly, Lord Jesus!
Saturday, April 09, 2011
Bits n Pieces
The wind is howling again today. The very tall poplar just outside the office window is swaying back and forth, back and forth. The wind sounds as if it is roaring in anger at being forced to sweep between the 9 story building and our building once again. This continues to be the windiest January through April (now) that I've experienced here in Kherson. That doesn't mean it's never happened before, it just means it's not happened while we've been here.
After all the wind we had in Colorado from late last summer until the day we left at the end of December... There were times when I prayed that God would keep the aspens from falling on us in the middle of the night. The wind blows in Colorado all the time. I'm just not used to it blowing that hard for days and days on end.
We had rain here yesterday and last night, off and on, but in the early evening it cleared off enough for the the sun to shine brightly on the western faces of the buildings across the way from us. Usually they are just kind of gray 'over there' and I don't pay a whole lot of attention to them.
Yesterday evening, however, as we were watching one of the original Star Trek Generations tv programs on the VCR, I glanced out the window and was entranced by what I saw. Such a different aspect of the same ol' same ol' view. 
I grabbed my camera and missed the end of the program, standing out on the balcony, looking here and there, seeing things I don't usually notice. Sometimes Kherson can be beautiful. 
I read an article this morning, and then watched a youtube video that came with it, about something that is happening in Malaysia. There is a temple there with many gold Buddha idols. While close to 100 people were recently waiting to meet with one of the head men at the temple, the idols began to move. Some moved their mouths (the YouTube video showed this clearly), others began to move hands/fingers, open their eyes or even to speak. Some emitted bright light.
I was skeptical, so I watched the first video and thought it was just a trick of moving the camera's angle to cause the idol to appear bright and then normal. I only watched a couple minutes of the second video where the idol's mouth began to move. The video is from a cell phone or something and is not good quality, plus other people keep getting in the way with their arms and hands holding up cameras as well. However, there is no doubt - the idols' mouth did begin to move, as if speaking. I watched a few seconds of it, and then refreshed the page to stop the rest of the download.
Several missionary biographies that I have read came to mind. Missionaries reporting that strange things like this did happen in areas where they went, and continued to happen until people became Believers in Jesus Christ. Their reports of the spiritual battles that went on are often poo-pooed by modern conservative Evangelical Americans especially. Yet - it happened by witness of those missionaries and it is still happening today.
The spiritual battle we are in is very real. Of that I have no doubt. None.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
I really need to get busy and finish my Sunday School lesson prep for tomorrow. I know the story from Luke 11 and I have a picture from the internet I'm going to use. The story Jesus told about prayer and borrowing bread from a neighbor late at night.
The book I am supposed to be using has me more than a bit dismayed, however. I do not like this book, but it's the one I was given to teach from. I actually ordered an English copy so that I could really understand what the author was trying to communicate. It's written for very young children.
This last paragraph from tomorrow's lesson illustrates what I do not like about it:
"God will give us all these things if we ask Him, because He has promised to give us whatever is good for us. But we must really, really want to be good." (emphasis in the original)
WHAT????? God will give us what he has promised to give us if we are really, really good??????? AAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH. No way am I going to teach that! NO WAY. I don't care if it's at the end of the book and there are other chapters that talk about sin and repentence and Jesus. I will not teach that God will give us whatever we need if we are really, really good. Ei yi yi. I will teach what Jesus taught and not a thought more.
Luke 11:5-13 Then he said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and he goes to him at midnight and says, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him.’
“Then the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children are with me in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ I tell you, though he will not get up and give him the bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man’s boldness he will get up and give him as much as he needs.
“So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
“Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
This is part of what I'm trying to teach anyone in the Sunday School to watch out for. We need to be very, very careful what materials we use in addition to the Bible. Not all that goes by the name "Christian" is healthy and good. And sometimes heresy is mixed in when we least expect it.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
I'm thrilled to say that my tutor has taken 3 of my scarves. She wears the yellow and black one all the time and it looks really good on her, around her neck and under the v-front of her black coat. I am surprised that she wanted it, but it caughter her attention immediately and she wanted it. :) 
Yesterday she took 2 more, one of which I had thought seriously about keeping for myself - the Lipstick one. The other was the multi-colored one where I used a white warp and a single verigated bright colored yarn. She was taking them to her cousin who is in the hospital with pancreas problems. It doesn't sound good to me at all, like maybe this cousin has pancreatic cancer or something. Lyudmilla mentioned very, very briefly yesterday that she was concerned, but didn't go any farther than that. Her cousin saw Lyudmilla's yellow and black scarf and commented on how much she liked it. So, Lyudmilla wanted to take her one. I told her she could have which ever one she wanted, in fact, she can give them both away! 
She also saw the new one I have on the loom and fell in love with the colors. I told her I'd thought of her when I warped the loom and that she can have this one for herself, too, if it looks good when I'm finished. :) I'll post photos of it later. I have barely worked on it at all this week - too busy with that pillow and company!
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
All for now. I need to put together a word game of some sort for my lesson!
After all the wind we had in Colorado from late last summer until the day we left at the end of December... There were times when I prayed that God would keep the aspens from falling on us in the middle of the night. The wind blows in Colorado all the time. I'm just not used to it blowing that hard for days and days on end.
We had rain here yesterday and last night, off and on, but in the early evening it cleared off enough for the the sun to shine brightly on the western faces of the buildings across the way from us. Usually they are just kind of gray 'over there' and I don't pay a whole lot of attention to them.
Yesterday evening, however, as we were watching one of the original Star Trek Generations tv programs on the VCR, I glanced out the window and was entranced by what I saw. Such a different aspect of the same ol' same ol' view. 
I grabbed my camera and missed the end of the program, standing out on the balcony, looking here and there, seeing things I don't usually notice. Sometimes Kherson can be beautiful. 
I read an article this morning, and then watched a youtube video that came with it, about something that is happening in Malaysia. There is a temple there with many gold Buddha idols. While close to 100 people were recently waiting to meet with one of the head men at the temple, the idols began to move. Some moved their mouths (the YouTube video showed this clearly), others began to move hands/fingers, open their eyes or even to speak. Some emitted bright light. I was skeptical, so I watched the first video and thought it was just a trick of moving the camera's angle to cause the idol to appear bright and then normal. I only watched a couple minutes of the second video where the idol's mouth began to move. The video is from a cell phone or something and is not good quality, plus other people keep getting in the way with their arms and hands holding up cameras as well. However, there is no doubt - the idols' mouth did begin to move, as if speaking. I watched a few seconds of it, and then refreshed the page to stop the rest of the download.
Several missionary biographies that I have read came to mind. Missionaries reporting that strange things like this did happen in areas where they went, and continued to happen until people became Believers in Jesus Christ. Their reports of the spiritual battles that went on are often poo-pooed by modern conservative Evangelical Americans especially. Yet - it happened by witness of those missionaries and it is still happening today.
The spiritual battle we are in is very real. Of that I have no doubt. None.
I really need to get busy and finish my Sunday School lesson prep for tomorrow. I know the story from Luke 11 and I have a picture from the internet I'm going to use. The story Jesus told about prayer and borrowing bread from a neighbor late at night. The book I am supposed to be using has me more than a bit dismayed, however. I do not like this book, but it's the one I was given to teach from. I actually ordered an English copy so that I could really understand what the author was trying to communicate. It's written for very young children.
This last paragraph from tomorrow's lesson illustrates what I do not like about it:
"God will give us all these things if we ask Him, because He has promised to give us whatever is good for us. But we must really, really want to be good." (emphasis in the original)
WHAT????? God will give us what he has promised to give us if we are really, really good??????? AAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH. No way am I going to teach that! NO WAY. I don't care if it's at the end of the book and there are other chapters that talk about sin and repentence and Jesus. I will not teach that God will give us whatever we need if we are really, really good. Ei yi yi. I will teach what Jesus taught and not a thought more.
Luke 11:5-13 Then he said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and he goes to him at midnight and says, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him.’
“Then the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children are with me in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ I tell you, though he will not get up and give him the bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man’s boldness he will get up and give him as much as he needs.
“So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
“Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
This is part of what I'm trying to teach anyone in the Sunday School to watch out for. We need to be very, very careful what materials we use in addition to the Bible. Not all that goes by the name "Christian" is healthy and good. And sometimes heresy is mixed in when we least expect it.
I'm thrilled to say that my tutor has taken 3 of my scarves. She wears the yellow and black one all the time and it looks really good on her, around her neck and under the v-front of her black coat. I am surprised that she wanted it, but it caughter her attention immediately and she wanted it. :) 
Yesterday she took 2 more, one of which I had thought seriously about keeping for myself - the Lipstick one. The other was the multi-colored one where I used a white warp and a single verigated bright colored yarn. She was taking them to her cousin who is in the hospital with pancreas problems. It doesn't sound good to me at all, like maybe this cousin has pancreatic cancer or something. Lyudmilla mentioned very, very briefly yesterday that she was concerned, but didn't go any farther than that. Her cousin saw Lyudmilla's yellow and black scarf and commented on how much she liked it. So, Lyudmilla wanted to take her one. I told her she could have which ever one she wanted, in fact, she can give them both away! 
She also saw the new one I have on the loom and fell in love with the colors. I told her I'd thought of her when I warped the loom and that she can have this one for herself, too, if it looks good when I'm finished. :) I'll post photos of it later. I have barely worked on it at all this week - too busy with that pillow and company!All for now. I need to put together a word game of some sort for my lesson!
Friday, March 25, 2011
Emotional Rollercoaster News
Wow. What a morning it has been! As usual, drinking my morning coffee and reading blogs, news and facebook. One of the blogs I read posted this video - well worth the time it takes to download and watch. I was struck by the words of one of the translator: "We have no idea. We have had the Word of God for so long. We have taken it for granted. We have resources, we have translations, we have all these different things, and we don't, we don't cherish it. We don't realize what a precious gift we have and hold in our hands, and these guys were realizing that."
I am convicted. Deep in my heart and soul - I am convicted of that truth.
~*~*~*~*~*~
From there, I went to the news and this article on FoxNews caught my eye immediately: Thousands of Christians Displaced in Ethiopia After Muslim Extremists Torch Churches, Homes. People are being killed and persecuted by Muslims in Ethiopia simply for being Christians. Martyrs for Jesus Christ.
Our time is coming. It won't be long.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Last night before I went to bed I saw on the USGS page that there had been a 6.8 earthquake in Myanmar (also known as Burma). So far the news is telling us that over 40 people are known to have died. The death count is expected to rise.
This area of the world is not a very siesmicly active area. Yes, there are earthquakes there occasionally, rarely. But over the past couple or 3 weeks there have been several.
I laugh to myself because I noted immediately the first time Myanmar came up on the list and commented about it to Mel. I picture myself as a little ant, or maybe a big grasshopper - the scent of something new comes my way, I pause in whatever I'm doing and my antenna just start wiggling all over the place, trying to work it out. If you never watch bugs, you have no idea what I'm writing about. hahahahahahahaha I needed a good mental laugh right now.
Oh, and this is not the "big one" I think is going to happen. ;-)
~*~*~*~*~*~
When I googled "missionaries to Burma", the first name that came up Adoniram Judson. I have a feeling that anyone who has been in a church for very long will at least have heard that name.
Actually, when I think about it, that is not true. Our modern churches are so weak and worldly that I doubt 1 out of 100, or even 1 out of 1000 in most church circles today would have any clue who Adoniram Judson was. Or Amy Carmichael. Or Jim Elliott. Or maybe even Hudson Taylor. Sad. Very sad.
Whenever I think of missionaries to Burma, the wrong names come to mind. Gladys Aylward (missionary to China) and Isabel Kuhn (missionary to the Burmese Lisu people of Thailand and China). Two women who have inspired me in my own walk with Christ and in missions.
I wonder - how many of the people in the earthquake area have ever heard the name of Christ? Is there a church there? The news article only mentioned Buddhist temples that had been destroyed.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Scientists' Research Warns Humanity May be Facing 'Vortex of Death' is a very interesting article for a couple of reasons. This article addresses the upcoming Solar Maximum that has already begun. We are in Solar Cycle 24 now. The Minimum that we just came out of was one of the longest ever recorded and scientist are very puzzled over the whys and hows of it all. I'm not going to go into details here because if someone is interested there is so much info on the internet now - why repeat it?
What makes this particular article interesting to me is the fact that a couple of Melinda's Ladies (women who attend her Bible study on Fridays) talked all about magnetism and the sun while they walked home with her last week after the study. It was a "we're going to die! we're going to die! we're all going to die!" Chicken Little kind of conversation. Melinda wasn't sure what they were exactly talking about. When she told us I did have an idea, but had not seen it all put together in an article kind of format. Apparently this info in this kind of format hit the news stands and/or channels here sometime last week. After all, a lot of the research was done by a Russian.
(I find it interesting that a Russian is the one who came up with this. Over and over again I've heard people say things here that we are taught the exact opposite about in the States - yet the Russian view is proven to be correct - i.e. fat is good for you and you should eat it, not do what Americans do and try to never ever eat it. Just one example. I pay attention more now.)
Scientists have been talking about the Solar Minimums and Maximums for several years now. I've mentioned them before, posting photos from www.spaceweather.com and other places of the totally blank sun and how many days it had been blank, and so forth and so on. I'm interested in this stuff, after all! Not just because of things like this particular article (I do recommend reading the article, by the way, it is interesting, if a bit scary and sensational), but because of the natural processes that are happening around us all the time and we are just beginning to catch glimpses of what is really happening.
There is no doubt about it - we live in unusual and interesting and without Christ Jesus as Savior and Lord, frightening times. I can't blame man's sinfulness on what is going on in and on the sun, but I am sure that the sun affects us in ways we have no clue about right now. The sun does, after all, rule the day! And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so. God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day. Genesis 1:14-19
And one of my favorite Psalms which I set to my own music and can sing to you if you'd like, promises me that the sun will not harm me by day, nor the moon by night:
Psalm 121
A song of ascents.
1 I lift up my eyes to the hills—
where does my help come from?
2 My help comes from the LORD,
the Maker of heaven and earth.
3 He will not let your foot slip—
he who watches over you will not slumber;
4 indeed, he who watches over Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.
5 The LORD watches over you—
the LORD is your shade at your right hand;
6 the sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night.
7 The LORD will keep you from all harm—
he will watch over your life;
8 the LORD will watch over your coming and going
both now and forevermore.
Psalm 121
(bold emphasis mine)
So, what do I think of this article? Hmmm - this is one of those that I need to really do some deep thinking over. Right off the top of my head I have some opinions (I always have opinions!) and I think it fits right in with the Times in which we live - the End Times.
God does do miracles, I have no doubt of that. But it seems to me that most often God uses means to accomplish His will. There are going to be miracles in the coming days, yes. But much of what is written about in the Revelation and other prophetic books may simply be natural means that God uses to accomplish His perfect will here on earth.
~*~*~*~*~*~
And now - time to do the dishes and get ready for my Russian lesson in a couple hours!!
I am convicted. Deep in my heart and soul - I am convicted of that truth.
From there, I went to the news and this article on FoxNews caught my eye immediately: Thousands of Christians Displaced in Ethiopia After Muslim Extremists Torch Churches, Homes. People are being killed and persecuted by Muslims in Ethiopia simply for being Christians. Martyrs for Jesus Christ.
Our time is coming. It won't be long.
Last night before I went to bed I saw on the USGS page that there had been a 6.8 earthquake in Myanmar (also known as Burma). So far the news is telling us that over 40 people are known to have died. The death count is expected to rise.
This area of the world is not a very siesmicly active area. Yes, there are earthquakes there occasionally, rarely. But over the past couple or 3 weeks there have been several.
I laugh to myself because I noted immediately the first time Myanmar came up on the list and commented about it to Mel. I picture myself as a little ant, or maybe a big grasshopper - the scent of something new comes my way, I pause in whatever I'm doing and my antenna just start wiggling all over the place, trying to work it out. If you never watch bugs, you have no idea what I'm writing about. hahahahahahahaha I needed a good mental laugh right now.
Oh, and this is not the "big one" I think is going to happen. ;-)
When I googled "missionaries to Burma", the first name that came up Adoniram Judson. I have a feeling that anyone who has been in a church for very long will at least have heard that name.
Actually, when I think about it, that is not true. Our modern churches are so weak and worldly that I doubt 1 out of 100, or even 1 out of 1000 in most church circles today would have any clue who Adoniram Judson was. Or Amy Carmichael. Or Jim Elliott. Or maybe even Hudson Taylor. Sad. Very sad.
Whenever I think of missionaries to Burma, the wrong names come to mind. Gladys Aylward (missionary to China) and Isabel Kuhn (missionary to the Burmese Lisu people of Thailand and China). Two women who have inspired me in my own walk with Christ and in missions.
I wonder - how many of the people in the earthquake area have ever heard the name of Christ? Is there a church there? The news article only mentioned Buddhist temples that had been destroyed.
Scientists' Research Warns Humanity May be Facing 'Vortex of Death' is a very interesting article for a couple of reasons. This article addresses the upcoming Solar Maximum that has already begun. We are in Solar Cycle 24 now. The Minimum that we just came out of was one of the longest ever recorded and scientist are very puzzled over the whys and hows of it all. I'm not going to go into details here because if someone is interested there is so much info on the internet now - why repeat it?
What makes this particular article interesting to me is the fact that a couple of Melinda's Ladies (women who attend her Bible study on Fridays) talked all about magnetism and the sun while they walked home with her last week after the study. It was a "we're going to die! we're going to die! we're all going to die!" Chicken Little kind of conversation. Melinda wasn't sure what they were exactly talking about. When she told us I did have an idea, but had not seen it all put together in an article kind of format. Apparently this info in this kind of format hit the news stands and/or channels here sometime last week. After all, a lot of the research was done by a Russian.
(I find it interesting that a Russian is the one who came up with this. Over and over again I've heard people say things here that we are taught the exact opposite about in the States - yet the Russian view is proven to be correct - i.e. fat is good for you and you should eat it, not do what Americans do and try to never ever eat it. Just one example. I pay attention more now.)
Scientists have been talking about the Solar Minimums and Maximums for several years now. I've mentioned them before, posting photos from www.spaceweather.com and other places of the totally blank sun and how many days it had been blank, and so forth and so on. I'm interested in this stuff, after all! Not just because of things like this particular article (I do recommend reading the article, by the way, it is interesting, if a bit scary and sensational), but because of the natural processes that are happening around us all the time and we are just beginning to catch glimpses of what is really happening.
There is no doubt about it - we live in unusual and interesting and without Christ Jesus as Savior and Lord, frightening times. I can't blame man's sinfulness on what is going on in and on the sun, but I am sure that the sun affects us in ways we have no clue about right now. The sun does, after all, rule the day! And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so. God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day. Genesis 1:14-19
And one of my favorite Psalms which I set to my own music and can sing to you if you'd like, promises me that the sun will not harm me by day, nor the moon by night:
A song of ascents.
1 I lift up my eyes to the hills—
where does my help come from?
2 My help comes from the LORD,
the Maker of heaven and earth.
3 He will not let your foot slip—
he who watches over you will not slumber;
4 indeed, he who watches over Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.
5 The LORD watches over you—
the LORD is your shade at your right hand;
6 the sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night.
7 The LORD will keep you from all harm—
he will watch over your life;
8 the LORD will watch over your coming and going
both now and forevermore.
Psalm 121
(bold emphasis mine)
So, what do I think of this article? Hmmm - this is one of those that I need to really do some deep thinking over. Right off the top of my head I have some opinions (I always have opinions!) and I think it fits right in with the Times in which we live - the End Times.
God does do miracles, I have no doubt of that. But it seems to me that most often God uses means to accomplish His will. There are going to be miracles in the coming days, yes. But much of what is written about in the Revelation and other prophetic books may simply be natural means that God uses to accomplish His perfect will here on earth.
And now - time to do the dishes and get ready for my Russian lesson in a couple hours!!
Thursday, March 24, 2011
It is a bright, sunny, blue sky kind of day. Beautiful outside. The wind is blowing, a fairly stiff breeze right now. Mel went to the store and I am here alone at the moment, balcony door wide open, listening to Galena Downstairs talk from her balcony to someone on the street. Dogs are barking, I can hear the heavy traffic from on the other side of our building and the washer in working away in the kitchen. Everything is "normal".
So, tell me - why do I have this overwhelming, at times, feeling of dread?
I am waiting.
Expectant.
Wondering.
What is going to happen next?
This feeling actually started 3 or 4 days ago. I went to bed the other night expecting to see in the morning that there had been another big earthquake somewhere in the world. In fact, over the next day, there were several 6.0 and above quakes in various parts of the world, but mostly, of course, in Japan. I'm still waiting for another big one. I really do think it's going to happen. I even dreamed about it.
Last night, just before we went to bed, FoxNews posted an article on George Soros and what he is doing right now. Why Are the Media Ignoring Plans By George Soros to Remake the Entire Global Economy? Not something you want to read just before you go to sleep. I had nightmares off and on all night, and I usually do not have bad dreams. These dreams actually had to do with the Union Printers' Home in Colorado Springs - a place I grew up near. Unsettling dreams, uncomfortable dreams, scary dreams of a place I have never been inside and have really paid no attention to since I was, what? 15 years old?? Somehow it was all tied to Soros. But back to Soros himself, I told Mel this morning as we were discussing what is going on, that I believe this man is controlled by something outside of this world, and I'm NOT talking about space aliens! God is controlling him, but in that, it is very possible that God has given him over to Satan for Satan to use during these last days.
In writing all of that above, with his power today, I wonder if these words will come to him or to someone high in his organization? It is probable - the internet is wide-open for any one to read. Therefore, George Soros, you need to confess your sin, repent and ask Jesus Christ to forgive you and save you. Now. Before it is too late. That time is coming very soon. Christ is returning very soon to judge the inhabitants of the earth, both the living and those who have already died!
It has been a while since I've read in the main stream media about mass animal deaths. That is part of the reason I read that other website I wrote about a day or two ago. The mass animal deaths have not stopped. Just this morning there are two more reports about fish kills. They are labeled as being "natural" due to fish not getting enough oxygen due to ... fill in the blank. Birds are dying, fish are dying, porposes and dolphins are dying. The sea and the sky creatures are dying in unusual numbers. And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky.” So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the fifth day. Genesis 1:20-23
The second angel sounded his trumpet, and something like a huge mountain, all ablaze, was thrown into the sea. A third of the sea turned into blood, a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed. Revelation 8:8,9
Sometimes I feel like we are experiencing a mini-tribulation period, like God is giving us a taste of what is to come. But is anyone listening? Is anyone paying attention?
Actually, I have wondered recently if we are actually in the Tribulation period and it only seems to us that things are not all that bad. Maybe things really are that bad and we just are not aware of it yet? With the tsunami destroying boats and ships, as well as houses and other buildings on land, with the reactor in Japan spewing out radiation in the air, on land and sea, with Chernobyl still hot and a very real and present danger to the world ... The third angel sounded his trumpet, and a great star, blazing like a torch, fell from the sky on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water — the name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters turned bitter, and many people died from the waters that had become bitter.Revelation 8:10,11
Last summer huge swathes of the world burned - Alaska, Russia, the US. Actually, over the past few years even more has burned - Australia, Greece, other parts of Europe. Add it all together and a large percent of the earth's surface has burned in the past 10 years or less. The first angel sounded his trumpet, and there came hail and fire mixed with blood, and it was hurled down upon the earth. A third of the earth was burned up, a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up. Revelation 8:7
I no longer believe in a literal seven year tribulation, but rather in a perfect time period of tribulation.
What is happening in the Middle East? Every day we hear of more unrest, more people killed, more violence. Some of it is unimaginable. And what of the violence and horror that has happened in the past 100 years? Nazi Germany killing people and doing experiements on humans that are unbelievable in their horror. People doing that to other people. And recently I listened to a sermon by a young man who talked about what the Japanese did to his Korean people, as well as Chinese and other nationalities in that part of the world, before and during World War II. The reports are that their experiments on living human beings of ALL ages, including newborn babies - those experiments made Nazi German experiments throw-up when they toured the facilities. I was totally sickened myself, and I have no idea what those experiments were, nor do I want to know. I know enough of what the Nazi's did from all the reading I did when I was in high school (including QB VII, by Leon Uris - I've never forgotten that book).
I know that God is not finished with the country of Israel yet. I do not believe the Dispensational point of view exactly, nor do I believe that there is any way for Israel to be saved other than belief in the Lord Jesus Christ. But God is still working in that country, in those people. I have a feeling that things are literally going to explode there very soon. And it is going to be horrible and amazing at the same time.
So, today I write out some of these things, trying to get a mental handle on it all. I wonder, too, about all of the UFO stuff going on all over the world still. People are still seeing strange lights and crafts in the air, both during the day and at night. Some is faked, much is real. Unexplained. Unknown. But we live not just in this physical world that we can see, touch, taste, hear - but we also live in a spiritual world and there is a spiritual battle raging all around us. As the time draws near for Christ to return, and all that accompanies that time, I believe that unseen spiritual battle is going to become more and more seen. When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. “Oh, my lord, what shall we do?” the servant asked.
“Don’t be afraid,” the prophet answered. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”
And Elisha prayed, “O LORD, open his eyes so he may see.” Then the LORD opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. II Kings 6:15-17 How thankful I am that God has assured us "Those who are with us are more than those who are with them". We can rest in that.
So, the feeling of dread is still there. The feeling of waiting. Of anticipation. Expectation. Waiting.
And while I wait
and watch
and listen
and think
I must do.
Do what God has called me to do. Read His word, pray, listen for His voice, do the things my hands find to do, and do them with all my might.
Therefore, I really need to go check the washer and give the dial a bump (cold wash) and finish cleaning the flat and getting it ready for company tonight. Valentina and Lyena are coming over simple so Lyena can ask Mel questions. Questions she has from her Bible reading, from what is happening in the world around us, from her thinking deep, deep thoughts. Maybe I'll also have time to go over and see Ira, maybe not - the day is flying by.
So, tell me - why do I have this overwhelming, at times, feeling of dread?
I am waiting.
Expectant.
Wondering.
What is going to happen next?
This feeling actually started 3 or 4 days ago. I went to bed the other night expecting to see in the morning that there had been another big earthquake somewhere in the world. In fact, over the next day, there were several 6.0 and above quakes in various parts of the world, but mostly, of course, in Japan. I'm still waiting for another big one. I really do think it's going to happen. I even dreamed about it.
Last night, just before we went to bed, FoxNews posted an article on George Soros and what he is doing right now. Why Are the Media Ignoring Plans By George Soros to Remake the Entire Global Economy? Not something you want to read just before you go to sleep. I had nightmares off and on all night, and I usually do not have bad dreams. These dreams actually had to do with the Union Printers' Home in Colorado Springs - a place I grew up near. Unsettling dreams, uncomfortable dreams, scary dreams of a place I have never been inside and have really paid no attention to since I was, what? 15 years old?? Somehow it was all tied to Soros. But back to Soros himself, I told Mel this morning as we were discussing what is going on, that I believe this man is controlled by something outside of this world, and I'm NOT talking about space aliens! God is controlling him, but in that, it is very possible that God has given him over to Satan for Satan to use during these last days.
In writing all of that above, with his power today, I wonder if these words will come to him or to someone high in his organization? It is probable - the internet is wide-open for any one to read. Therefore, George Soros, you need to confess your sin, repent and ask Jesus Christ to forgive you and save you. Now. Before it is too late. That time is coming very soon. Christ is returning very soon to judge the inhabitants of the earth, both the living and those who have already died!
It has been a while since I've read in the main stream media about mass animal deaths. That is part of the reason I read that other website I wrote about a day or two ago. The mass animal deaths have not stopped. Just this morning there are two more reports about fish kills. They are labeled as being "natural" due to fish not getting enough oxygen due to ... fill in the blank. Birds are dying, fish are dying, porposes and dolphins are dying. The sea and the sky creatures are dying in unusual numbers. And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky.” So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the fifth day. Genesis 1:20-23
The second angel sounded his trumpet, and something like a huge mountain, all ablaze, was thrown into the sea. A third of the sea turned into blood, a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed. Revelation 8:8,9
Sometimes I feel like we are experiencing a mini-tribulation period, like God is giving us a taste of what is to come. But is anyone listening? Is anyone paying attention?
Actually, I have wondered recently if we are actually in the Tribulation period and it only seems to us that things are not all that bad. Maybe things really are that bad and we just are not aware of it yet? With the tsunami destroying boats and ships, as well as houses and other buildings on land, with the reactor in Japan spewing out radiation in the air, on land and sea, with Chernobyl still hot and a very real and present danger to the world ... The third angel sounded his trumpet, and a great star, blazing like a torch, fell from the sky on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water — the name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters turned bitter, and many people died from the waters that had become bitter.Revelation 8:10,11
Last summer huge swathes of the world burned - Alaska, Russia, the US. Actually, over the past few years even more has burned - Australia, Greece, other parts of Europe. Add it all together and a large percent of the earth's surface has burned in the past 10 years or less. The first angel sounded his trumpet, and there came hail and fire mixed with blood, and it was hurled down upon the earth. A third of the earth was burned up, a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up. Revelation 8:7
I no longer believe in a literal seven year tribulation, but rather in a perfect time period of tribulation.
What is happening in the Middle East? Every day we hear of more unrest, more people killed, more violence. Some of it is unimaginable. And what of the violence and horror that has happened in the past 100 years? Nazi Germany killing people and doing experiements on humans that are unbelievable in their horror. People doing that to other people. And recently I listened to a sermon by a young man who talked about what the Japanese did to his Korean people, as well as Chinese and other nationalities in that part of the world, before and during World War II. The reports are that their experiments on living human beings of ALL ages, including newborn babies - those experiments made Nazi German experiments throw-up when they toured the facilities. I was totally sickened myself, and I have no idea what those experiments were, nor do I want to know. I know enough of what the Nazi's did from all the reading I did when I was in high school (including QB VII, by Leon Uris - I've never forgotten that book).
I know that God is not finished with the country of Israel yet. I do not believe the Dispensational point of view exactly, nor do I believe that there is any way for Israel to be saved other than belief in the Lord Jesus Christ. But God is still working in that country, in those people. I have a feeling that things are literally going to explode there very soon. And it is going to be horrible and amazing at the same time.
So, today I write out some of these things, trying to get a mental handle on it all. I wonder, too, about all of the UFO stuff going on all over the world still. People are still seeing strange lights and crafts in the air, both during the day and at night. Some is faked, much is real. Unexplained. Unknown. But we live not just in this physical world that we can see, touch, taste, hear - but we also live in a spiritual world and there is a spiritual battle raging all around us. As the time draws near for Christ to return, and all that accompanies that time, I believe that unseen spiritual battle is going to become more and more seen. When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. “Oh, my lord, what shall we do?” the servant asked.
“Don’t be afraid,” the prophet answered. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”
And Elisha prayed, “O LORD, open his eyes so he may see.” Then the LORD opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. II Kings 6:15-17 How thankful I am that God has assured us "Those who are with us are more than those who are with them". We can rest in that.
So, the feeling of dread is still there. The feeling of waiting. Of anticipation. Expectation. Waiting.
And while I wait
and watch
and listen
and think
I must do.
Do what God has called me to do. Read His word, pray, listen for His voice, do the things my hands find to do, and do them with all my might.
Therefore, I really need to go check the washer and give the dial a bump (cold wash) and finish cleaning the flat and getting it ready for company tonight. Valentina and Lyena are coming over simple so Lyena can ask Mel questions. Questions she has from her Bible reading, from what is happening in the world around us, from her thinking deep, deep thoughts. Maybe I'll also have time to go over and see Ira, maybe not - the day is flying by.
Sunday, March 13, 2011
41 and Counting
In the past 7 days there have been 41 earthquakes listed on the USGS site, 6.0 and above.
6.0 - 5
6.1 - 8
6.2 - 8
6.3 - 5
6.4 - 3
6.5 - 5
6.6 - 2
6.7 -
6.8 - 2
6.9 -
7.0 -
7.1 - 1
7.2 - 1
8.9 (upgraded to 9.1) - 1
These big quakes have happened not only in Japan or in the sea near Japan, but also in:
CHILE
SOUTH SANDWICH ISLANDS
SOLOMON ISLANDS
NEW BRITAIN REGION, PAPUA NEW GUINEA
BALI SEA
TONGA
JAPAN
On today's USGS map, there are 535 quakes shown:
Mel asked me a couple nights ago what I think is going to happen next. I pondered that question for a few moments and then responded. The West Coast of America has been very quiet and is due or even overdue for a "big one". But it could be Alaska again, or maybe even more probable - Istanbul. So, there you have it. I think the next really big one is going to hit either the West Coast or Alaska or Istanbul. Of course, the way things have been moving around in other parts of Europe, China and the Middle East - who knows? Remember - I am not a prophet, neither am I the son of a prophet. :-)
Only God knows. And I'm so thankful He is the one in control of it all.
6.0 - 5
6.1 - 8
6.2 - 8
6.3 - 5
6.4 - 3
6.5 - 5
6.6 - 2
6.7 -
6.8 - 2
6.9 -
7.0 -
7.1 - 1
7.2 - 1
8.9 (upgraded to 9.1) - 1
These big quakes have happened not only in Japan or in the sea near Japan, but also in:
CHILE
SOUTH SANDWICH ISLANDS
SOLOMON ISLANDS
NEW BRITAIN REGION, PAPUA NEW GUINEA
BALI SEA
TONGA
JAPAN
On today's USGS map, there are 535 quakes shown:
Mel asked me a couple nights ago what I think is going to happen next. I pondered that question for a few moments and then responded. The West Coast of America has been very quiet and is due or even overdue for a "big one". But it could be Alaska again, or maybe even more probable - Istanbul. So, there you have it. I think the next really big one is going to hit either the West Coast or Alaska or Istanbul. Of course, the way things have been moving around in other parts of Europe, China and the Middle East - who knows? Remember - I am not a prophet, neither am I the son of a prophet. :-)
Only God knows. And I'm so thankful He is the one in control of it all.
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Earthquake Fallout
This morning, after I eventually wandered my way over to the computer and got it up and running and the internet working, I started checking news and blogs. I was glad to see that overnight, our time, there had been no 6.0's and above. There have been since, though, in the Japan area. I then turned my attention to a specific blog I now read.
I found this blog while searching the internet a few weeks ago for Christian blogs on End Time. I like the way the woman writes. Even though we are obviously from different denominations, we see the same thing happening in the world around us.
This morning (evening for her), though, I was deeply offended by one sentence that she wrote. That sentence, and the offence it produced, has stuck with me all day and influenced everything I've been reading and doing. Here is her paragraph:
I've often wondered about how bad things will get before we are called to meet Him in the air. (1 Thess 4:16-18). How bad will the birth pangs get and what will that look like? The church is not destined to be on earth for the Tribulation, that is a fact. The angel told Daniel in Daniel 9:24 the 6 reasons God will make a Tribulation, and one of them is to punish, and end the iniquity on earth. Church age believers are not destined for punishment, our sins are pardoned and we are free from accusation. (Col 1:22). But for the Christians in Japan, if there are any, it must certainly feel like punishment. So this is how I decided to think about it. And she goes on from there.
I don't agree with her eschatology completely, but that is neither here nor there (sometimes I do wish I still believed in a pre-trib rapture....) Can you guess what sentence so offended me?
But for the Christians in Japan, if there are any, it must certainly feel like punishment.
Oh.
My.
Gosh.
I'm not sure where to start with this one! So, I'll start with the bolded part first (that was my emphasis added, by the way). "If there are any" I'm still kind of reeling over that one. How arrogant is that? It speaks volumes to me on her view of world missions, on her view of Gods' promise that there will be people from EVERY tribe and tongue and nation in heaven, on her general view of the Japanese people who live there. Yes, Japan is the 2nd most unevangelized country in the world, so I recently learned. Yes, there are millions of heathen there. But YES, God has HIS people in Japan, right now, a Church made up of several different denominations, people He has chosen and called as His own. Some of those Believers in Japan are Americans, some are British, for all I know some may be Chinese or Australian or whatever nationality you can think of. Some are businessmen, some are missionaries. Some are Japanese people who have heard the Word of God and responded because GOD CHOSE THEM, CALLED THEM, and REDEEMED THEM. There is a Church in Japan, small as it may be, but it IS there. (I often - OFTEN - wonder just how small the true Chruch is in the US. So many say they are Christians, but there is no fruit of the Spirit in their lives, and so many of the 'churches' are heretical now...)
I remember when we first came to Ukraine. No power 5 times a day. A water schedule (which we still have) - water only 3 times a day. Buildings in great disrepair. People living hand to mouth, getting food out of the dumpsters, dogs and cats starving on the streets because people couldn't feed them. And we got here when things were starting to get better! Did we think God was punishing us for sending us here?!!? Did the people we met - both Believers and non-Believers - think God was punishing them through what had happened to their country, the old USSR? No, in fact, many people saw it as God was liberating them, giving them a blessing. People here just have a different way of looking at things because they have suffered so much, for so long.
Maybe that has influenced my own thinking. Maybe that is part of why I was so offended. When "bad" things happen, it does not mean that God is punishing people. Ok, I am well aware that this can get sticky very quickly. God does punish sin - but He is very long suffering. Sometimes what we think or assume is punishment (on us or on others around us) is actually God's blessing. And what is happening in Japan right now may very well be a prime example of that.
It can be a blessing - by shaking people out of their dependence on their own abilities and forcing them to acknowledge that they are sinners and need a Savior. That is the main way. This - no matter how painful it may be, is a BLESSING. So, Christians living there in Japan, I pray, are not looking at this as a punishment on them from God, but rather as God splitting open a very hard shell around the society so that many will be open to actually hearing and understanding the Word of God, the Gospel preached or spoken to them.
Oh, I am very well aware that many more will actually harden their hearts against God instead! I know that many will acknowledge that this came from God and shake their fists at Him instead of repent.
I guess it all depends on how we chose to look at what is happening around us.
For me, believing now that we Christians, we Believers in Christ Jesus as Savior, we will go through the Tribulation just as all other humans alive on earth, this gives me great joy. What a priviledge to suffer as our Savior did, not because we are being punished by God while the world is being punished, but because we have been given the great honor of witnessing for Him during this time. What great honor it will be for those who are martyred for the sake of Jesus Christ!! Not punishment! Honor! God will protect His children during that time, and if we die, we die - just like we do every single day of the year, every hour of the day. Some right now as I write - Christians dying because of their faith in Christ, Christians dying because they live in an area prone to earthquakes, floods, volcanoes or whatever it may be. Christians dying because man built nuclear reactors, or planes and cars that crash.
I'm not even sure this all makes sense this afternoon. I'm going to post it and then I may revise it. But for now - I'm praying for my brothers and sisters in Christ in Japan, that God will open many hearts to hear their witness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Come quickly, Lord Jesus!
I found this blog while searching the internet a few weeks ago for Christian blogs on End Time. I like the way the woman writes. Even though we are obviously from different denominations, we see the same thing happening in the world around us.
This morning (evening for her), though, I was deeply offended by one sentence that she wrote. That sentence, and the offence it produced, has stuck with me all day and influenced everything I've been reading and doing. Here is her paragraph:
I've often wondered about how bad things will get before we are called to meet Him in the air. (1 Thess 4:16-18). How bad will the birth pangs get and what will that look like? The church is not destined to be on earth for the Tribulation, that is a fact. The angel told Daniel in Daniel 9:24 the 6 reasons God will make a Tribulation, and one of them is to punish, and end the iniquity on earth. Church age believers are not destined for punishment, our sins are pardoned and we are free from accusation. (Col 1:22). But for the Christians in Japan, if there are any, it must certainly feel like punishment. So this is how I decided to think about it. And she goes on from there.
I don't agree with her eschatology completely, but that is neither here nor there (sometimes I do wish I still believed in a pre-trib rapture....) Can you guess what sentence so offended me?
But for the Christians in Japan, if there are any, it must certainly feel like punishment.
Oh.
My.
Gosh.
I'm not sure where to start with this one! So, I'll start with the bolded part first (that was my emphasis added, by the way). "If there are any" I'm still kind of reeling over that one. How arrogant is that? It speaks volumes to me on her view of world missions, on her view of Gods' promise that there will be people from EVERY tribe and tongue and nation in heaven, on her general view of the Japanese people who live there. Yes, Japan is the 2nd most unevangelized country in the world, so I recently learned. Yes, there are millions of heathen there. But YES, God has HIS people in Japan, right now, a Church made up of several different denominations, people He has chosen and called as His own. Some of those Believers in Japan are Americans, some are British, for all I know some may be Chinese or Australian or whatever nationality you can think of. Some are businessmen, some are missionaries. Some are Japanese people who have heard the Word of God and responded because GOD CHOSE THEM, CALLED THEM, and REDEEMED THEM. There is a Church in Japan, small as it may be, but it IS there. (I often - OFTEN - wonder just how small the true Chruch is in the US. So many say they are Christians, but there is no fruit of the Spirit in their lives, and so many of the 'churches' are heretical now...)
I remember when we first came to Ukraine. No power 5 times a day. A water schedule (which we still have) - water only 3 times a day. Buildings in great disrepair. People living hand to mouth, getting food out of the dumpsters, dogs and cats starving on the streets because people couldn't feed them. And we got here when things were starting to get better! Did we think God was punishing us for sending us here?!!? Did the people we met - both Believers and non-Believers - think God was punishing them through what had happened to their country, the old USSR? No, in fact, many people saw it as God was liberating them, giving them a blessing. People here just have a different way of looking at things because they have suffered so much, for so long.
Maybe that has influenced my own thinking. Maybe that is part of why I was so offended. When "bad" things happen, it does not mean that God is punishing people. Ok, I am well aware that this can get sticky very quickly. God does punish sin - but He is very long suffering. Sometimes what we think or assume is punishment (on us or on others around us) is actually God's blessing. And what is happening in Japan right now may very well be a prime example of that.
It can be a blessing - by shaking people out of their dependence on their own abilities and forcing them to acknowledge that they are sinners and need a Savior. That is the main way. This - no matter how painful it may be, is a BLESSING. So, Christians living there in Japan, I pray, are not looking at this as a punishment on them from God, but rather as God splitting open a very hard shell around the society so that many will be open to actually hearing and understanding the Word of God, the Gospel preached or spoken to them.
Oh, I am very well aware that many more will actually harden their hearts against God instead! I know that many will acknowledge that this came from God and shake their fists at Him instead of repent.
I guess it all depends on how we chose to look at what is happening around us.
For me, believing now that we Christians, we Believers in Christ Jesus as Savior, we will go through the Tribulation just as all other humans alive on earth, this gives me great joy. What a priviledge to suffer as our Savior did, not because we are being punished by God while the world is being punished, but because we have been given the great honor of witnessing for Him during this time. What great honor it will be for those who are martyred for the sake of Jesus Christ!! Not punishment! Honor! God will protect His children during that time, and if we die, we die - just like we do every single day of the year, every hour of the day. Some right now as I write - Christians dying because of their faith in Christ, Christians dying because they live in an area prone to earthquakes, floods, volcanoes or whatever it may be. Christians dying because man built nuclear reactors, or planes and cars that crash.
I'm not even sure this all makes sense this afternoon. I'm going to post it and then I may revise it. But for now - I'm praying for my brothers and sisters in Christ in Japan, that God will open many hearts to hear their witness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Come quickly, Lord Jesus!
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