Category Archives: Quotes

A Colville Weekend

On Saturday our Grands had conflicting events so the family had to divide and conquer.

Some of us were at Addy’s Basketball game. She enjoys playing.

Others were at JJ’s promotion at Taekwondo. He is officially a Junior now and his belt was upgraded.

We take joy in seeing our Grands thrive in our community.

Rejoice with those who rejoice.

On Sunday on our way home from church I took a photo at the roundabout.

Our community and our church are mourning the deaths of two officers who were killed in the line of duty in Spokane. One of those officers belongs to a well known and beloved farming family in our community. The flags are flying at half mast.

We buy from this farm and drive by their roadside store often.

Here is what the family wrote;

Mason was our son, our brother, our uncle, our friend, and our hero.

Our store will be closed until further notice.

If you wish to support his wife and sons, there will be a Mason Acheson Memorial Fund set up at STCU. There is also a GoFundMe for online giving: https://www.gofundme.com/…/honoring-mason-acheson…

“‘O Death, where is your sting?
O Grave, where is your victory?’
The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.”
(1 Corinthians 15:55-58)

We weep with those who weep.

We rejoice that Mason is with his Savior, Jesus. We weep with his loved ones who are still on this earth grieving the deep loss.

Living on this earth we have joy and sorrow.

Maui Day 8 ~ Lu’au

Maui 2026 Finale Travel Journal Post

Since many of the twelve of us had never had a Luau experience Dan made reservations for the Wailele Lu’au held at the Westin Resort. Our two vehicles were filled up for the short drive to the Westin Resort just south of our resort. We waited in line until the venue was ready for us. We were greeted with a beautiful lei greeting and a drink as we were ushered to our seats.

This is the description that the resort gives:

“The island’s most extreme fire knife dance finale” – Staged outdoors amidst a scenic oceanside setting alongside the shores of Ka‘anapali Beach, at The Westin Maui Resort & Spa’s Aloha Pavilion. A spectacular setting to immerse yourself in a pure, Hawaiian experience. Discover the legend of the mischievous demigod Mauiakalana, said to have revealed the secret of fire-making. Wailele Lu‘au takes you on a journey through a time when written language did not exist, the ‘oli (chant) and hula (dance) was a means of preserving the rich fabric of cultural knowledge, keeping our Hawaiian heritage, myths and genealogies alive.”

Before the dinner service and show began we managed to get a family photo by the photographer at the resort. This will probably be our Christmas card and letter photo this year. So if you’ve seen it here before our Christmas greeting reaches you…act surprised.

Since there were 12 of us we were at two tables next to each other.

We enjoyed the views of the sun setting. It was a show within a show. Something we didn’t have to pay for.

Birthdays and Anniversaries were honored, so our two 40 year olds stood up. Katie and Jamie were born about 19 days apart.

The Lu’au included an all you can eat dinner buffet and dessert offerings along with a generous offering of drinks.

It was an entertaining show. On the way out of the resort we had a few more photo ops.

Our sweet Lei Princess!

And that was the end of our last full day in Maui.

On Friday morning the 9th of October we were all packing up to get ready for our drive to the airport and flights home. I was on the deck taking in the morning view one last time when I looked over to our next door families deck and saw Addy’s decorations.

 

Thank you, LORD, for allowing us the privilege of this family vacation enjoying each other and your beautiful creation of the Island of Maui framed by the mighty Pacific Ocean and the sky above that proclaims your handiwork. We are forever grateful to You for your love and mercy and grace poured out abundantly on us.

Aloha and Mahalo Maui!

 

Reformation Day 2026

On this Reformation day and since 2026 marks the 500th anniversary of Tyndale’s work of translating the New Testament into the common English language, I’m posting some of Tyndale’s story.

For the first time ever in history, the Greek New Testament was translated into English. Before his martyrdom in 1536, Tyndale would go on to translate into clear, common English not only the New Testament but also the Pentateuch, Joshua to 2 Chronicles, and Jonah. All this material became the basis of the Great Bible issued by Miles Coverdale in England in 1539 and the basis for the Geneva Bible published in 1557 — “the Bible of the nation,” which sold over a million copies between 1560 and 1640.

“Lord, open the King of England’s eyes” were the famous final words of William Tyndale before he was strangled and burned at the stake for heresy in Vilvoorde, Belgium, on October 6, 1536. 
~
Tyndale was an English scholar and priest who sought to translate the Bible directly from Hebrew and Greek into English so that common people could read and understand it. One of his famous quotes came from a scholarly debate copied here…

John Foxe tells us that one day an exasperated Catholic scholar at dinner with Tyndale said, “We were better be without God’s law than the pope’s.”

In response, Tyndale spoke his famous words, “I defy the Pope and all his laws. . . . If God spare my life ere many years, I will cause a boy that driveth the plow, shall know more of the Scripture than thou dost.”

~
 King Henry VIII and church authorities opposed his work, viewing vernacular translations as a threat to religious order and papal or royal control.
~
After being betrayed, hunted, and imprisoned for over a year, Tyndale uttered his dying prayer for the king just before his execution.
~
How the Prayer Was Answered:

 Just two to three years after Tyndale’s death, King Henry VIII reversed his stance and authorized the distribution of English Bibles—starting with the Matthew Bible and Miles Coverdale’s work, both of which heavily relied on Tyndale’s translations. 

Tyndale’s pioneering translations formed the backbone of later English editions, including the King James Version, directly influencing the development of the English language,

“We don’t want to forget him because every time you pick up your Bible, you have a debt to pay to William Tyndale.” John MacArthur

For more history of the Bible and Tyndale…

From Desiring God

From Tyndale House.

Who was William Tyndale?

 

Maui Day 3~Haleakala National Park

On Saturday October 3rd, I watched the gradual start to the day enjoying my cup of coffee.

This was going to be a long day that got the best of some of us. Andrew was already down for the count sequestered in his room with a fever. The rest of us got into our two cars and started the trip to Haleakala National Park. This will be part 1 of our experiences this day.

“No place can prepare you for the experiences and feelings you will have on the summit of Haleakalā volcano. The landscape—deeply sculpted, richly colored, and forever changing—is unlike anywhere else on Earth.”

Stephen Tyng Mather

“He laid the foundation of the National Park Service, defining and establishing the policies under which its areas shall be developed and conserved unimpaired for future generations. There will never come an end to the good that he has done.”

If you’d like to read more about the legacy of Mather click here.

This trip was not for the faint of heart. Although it was only 53 miles from our resort with the hairpin turns going from an elevation of 500 to 10,023 it took close to two hours. The Pu’u’ula’ula summit was our destination. We were above the clouds at this height and above the path of several planes we saw, too. Our grands were traveling troopers! Some of our crew suffered severe altitude issues with their ears.

The Haleakalā High Altitude Observatory (HO) site is located near the summit of Haleakalā on the Hawaiian island of Maui. The site was formally designated for observatory use by an executive order of the Governor of Hawaiʻi in 1961, and has been managed and operated by the University of Hawaiʻi (UH) to support high-quality, high-impact research, education, and space surveillance since then. HO is not part of the Haleakalā National Park and is not open to the general public. (Top photo of the collage above)

You can learn more about this National Park here.

We were all excited that Laura captured a sighting of the NeNe Birds! Click on NeNe for more info.

This caution was heeded and it was hard to walk with confidence at this elevation. I was a wee bit light headed and not confident of my steps.

Thankfully the trip down the mountain elevations seemed quicker. We stopped at the lower park headquarters and visitor center and enjoyed some sandwiches we made for this trip. It was so good to get back on relatively straight roads for our next adventure. That will be another post.

Maui 2026~Part Two

 

Do you see the window washer?

Our son Dan did all the preliminary planning of the more involved events like snorkeling, zip-lining, pineapple farm, etc. so the drives would be coordinated instead of zig zagging all around the island. Thanks, Dan.

On Friday October 2nd he planned a relaxing free day with no special events.

We had pool time and beach time and lots of photo time. We ended the day with dinner at Duke’s Restaurant which was right on our resort property.

Greg and I were captured on the path as we walked to Duke’s for an afternoon refreshment.

Granny Great got hit by a wave! Walking to find some famous Hawaii Shaved Ice…

A Wheelchair was rented to save Granny Great from the extra long stretches of walking.

There be three gentle and goodlie things
To be here
 To be together
And to think well of one another
~
L.M. Montgomery (from Pat of Silver Bush)
~
Thank you, to Lorrie (Fabric Paper Thread) for posting this quote I lifted for our time in Hawaii.
~
I was reading an article from Paul Tripp Ministries while in Maui and the title of a new teaching series (Mercy Triumphs over Judgement) where he shared his favorite verse of 2026,
James 2:13:
“For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.”
~
As I sat amongst the twelve of us in Maui with different quirks and different personalities I thought this was a perfect verse to dwell on and consider…
Our third day was a full travel to experiences day. Saturday will take a few posts to cover.

The Age-Long Minute

The Age-Long Minute
by
Amy Carmichael
~
Thou art the Lord who slept upon the pillow,
Thou art the Lord who soothed the furious sea,
What matter beating wind and tossing billow
If only we are in the boat with Thee.
Hold us in quiet through the age-long minute
While Thou art silent, and the wind is shrill:
Can the boat sink while Thou, dear Lord, art in it?
Can the heart faint that waiteth on Thy will?

Greg’s Birthday Hodgepodge

This year Wednesday Hodgepodge has landed on Greg’s Birthday. We will be celebrating simply today and more grandly on Friday in Spokane.

Our lovely hostess, Joyce, has another batch of Wednesday Hodgepodge questions mixed up for us. Thank You, Joyce!

1. ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL?  On a scale of 1-10 how much of a fan are you? (10 is never miss a game and 1 is I’m just here for the snacks). Who’s your team? If you’re playing along today, but live outside the US feel free to sub your feelings about futbol for the more American sport of football. 

I like college football. We have 3 graduates of the University of Washington in our family so we are always ready to cheer the Huskies on. They beat their cross state rival on Sunday at the Apple Cup. My favorite sport is soccer/futbol. I keep up with English Premier league and of course I follow the Seattle Sounders. I’m a 10 for soccer and a 5 for football.

2. What’s something you currently have a game plan for managing? 

I am trying to clean up my blog, long story. I made great headway over Labor Day Weekend while I had the time. I don’t know how long it will take but I’m committed to getting the job done. Some of the posts on my blog from the past have disappeared and I’ll be reposting the ones that are more dear to me here and there under the heading of Blog Restoration.

3. Do you like chicken wings? Hot, mild, or some other flavor? What’s a must have food for you on a tailgate menu? I know tailgating isn’t as big of a thing outside the US of A as it is inside the US of A, but you can also answer the question this way-what’s a must have food for you at a sporting event viewing party? 

I do like chicken wings with moist towelettes handy. Hot dogs/brats and beans or mac and cheese sound like something good on a tailgate sturdy paper plate! For watching Fall or winter sporting events at home a big pot of chili, cornbread and chips and salsa is good and easy.

4. Teams typically have strict playbooks they follow. What is one unwritten rule or piece of advice in your ‘life playbook’ you think everyone should know?

Just one? I wrote this quote down from J.C. Ryle this week and it serves this question well.

“We must not pretend we are wiser than God.”

And from a recent sermon by our Pastor; “We don’t practice sin, we fight it!”

5. This is the week we remember and mourn all that was lost and changed on September 11, 2001. I always include a spot for bloggers to share anything they’d like to share about 9/11. Share as much or as little as you like. 

On 9-11-2001 We were living in Kenmore, Washington. We put this flag on the side of our home that faced the street. We really didn’t know what else to do.

It was so surreal, so shocking, so disturbing and it changed our world as we know it.

I have a full post set to publish on Friday in remembrance of this day 25 years ago.

6.Insert your own random thought here. 

Back to the birthday boy. Today he is 73. I like to think he’s catching up to me but come March I’ll still be a few years ahead of him.

Photo Above from a couple years ago and photo below several years ago with our middle son.

Today, on his birthday, he is with our middle son helping him to fell trees and loading those logs into the truck for firewood. They are in the Colville National Forest. Greg has the gift of service.

Yesterday I made this treat for him. It’s his favorite. It’s my recipe in the Mennonite Girls Can Cook, Celebrations Cookbook. We will enjoy that treat today at some point.

Looking forward to visiting and reading more answers to the questions or prompts.

Anniversaries Worth Remembering

The anniversary I’m remembering here today is the 79th anniversary of my parents and oldest sister arriving from Persia to New York on September 6, 1947. I’m posting this on the 79th anniversary of the day they left Tehran, Iran on September 3, 1947.

This is the actual airplane (Skyways International) that they traveled on arriving in New York, New York. Our daughter has been researching her grandparents history and has found information and documents we have not seen before. Andrew and Katie searched the Tail Number and were able to come up with the exact plane. Below is the Entry Declaration that they found, too.

These flights were during the Itinerant Migrant air Charter era. (1947-1949)

They embarked in Tehran and disembarked in New York, New York. The last leg of the journey was from Gander, Newfoundland.

My father’s sister and her husband and two children were on the plane, too.

Here is an account of events leading up to their travel in my Pop’s words dictated in Russian to a Russian journalist several years ago. My brother-in-law worked with a friend of ours to translate it into English. Sentences in (parenthesis) are my words inserted to the narrative.

At this time in our lives, (after our sister Kathy was born in May of 1946) my parents began to cultivate closer ties with our relatives in the U.S. In so doing they asked them to sponsor our family into the U.S. Sponsoring was necessary back then. The relatives agreed. As it turned out, only the siblings who had families and my parents had emigration status. That meant that my sister’s family and mine were the only ones who could leave. My parents decided not to come with us because they did not want to further divide the family. Because my father was a spiritual leader in the Molokan church, the immigration officer at the American Consulate advised us to have our American relatives sponsor him as a pastor which would expedite the emigration process for him and the rest of the family. And so it did for they all arrived two years after we did.

We ourselves left Teheran for the United States on September 3, 1947. I will give the details of our trip because it is different than how we would travel today. Our plane was a twin engine Red Cross cargo plane. There were no seats-only benches-and who needs seat belts? Some of us sat on the benches while others laid on the floor. Because our flight altitude was relatively low, we were able to discard Kathy’s dirty diapers out the window. Opening and closing them did not affect cabin pressure. Here is our itinerary; From Teheran we flew to Cairo, Egypt, refueled and flew on to Rome, Italy. We spent the night in Rome. From Rome we flew to London. We were not allowed off the plane and only stayed for lunch. We flew to Scotland and stayed overnight. From Scotland we flew to Iceland and had lunch. From there to Greenland where we spent the night. From Greenland we flew to New York. We arrived in New York late Saturday night, September 6th. ( I think my pop had mistaken the Greenland stop since the travel papers show they flew from Newfoundland into New York.)

We were planning on taking a train from New York to Los Angeles that night, however all our money was in travelers checks made out to my brother John. Union Pacific would not take those checks. We were stuck in New York for the night. We had the name of a Russian pastor and two kind ladies from Traveler’s Aid helped us locate his church. When we arrived he was just locking the doors of the church for the night. He took my sister’s family and the three of us to a hotel which did accept our traveler’s checks. In the morning Nadia woke up and was scared to death because of the height of the room. All she saw were people the size of ants below and this frightened her.

It being Sunday, we went to this pastor’s church morning and evening. On Sunday night one family took my sister’s family and another took ours for the night. Monday morning we notified our relatives of our plight. They wired us money for the train and we were able to leave for Los Angeles. (This was September 8th) We arrived in LA on September 12, 1947.

What a long journey for them with a toddler in tow and with my mom being pregnant and knowing very little English. Mom was pregnant with my sister Vera on this journey.

This is a photo of my parents and sister Kathy after they arrived in Los Angeles.

And that my friends is just the beginning of the story of my parents and relatives settling in the U.S.A. An Anniversary worth remembering for me and my family.

This is a very small portion of my Pop’s story. The last paragraph of his longer story ends this way;

I am so thankful for the unseen hand of the Lord guiding my life. I give all the praise to Him. It is my prayer that readers of my story come to know Jesus as I have come to know Him.

Thanks be to God for leading and guiding and bringing traveling ‘angels’ along to help them with the mishaps along the way! I am grateful to God for leading my parents to the USA and even more grateful to God for saving our pop through Jesus Christ and what that means for our family for generations to come.

Prayer

A quote about prayer from John MacArthur who was Greg and my first pastor after we were married in 1974. He got his promotion to heaven July 25th of 2025. Even though we moved far away from our first church and have been active members under other pastors since 1976, we’ve continued to learn and grow from Johnny Mac’s sermons (available at Grace to You) and his books.

“Far from being merely a wish list, godly prayer is fundamentally and inescapably an act of worship. It is an expression of our praise, our unworthiness, our desire to see God’s will fulfilled, and our utter dependence on Him for all our needs. Thus, every aspect of prayer is an act of worship. That includes the petitions we make, because when we properly make our requests known to God–without anxiety, through prayer and supplication, and with thanksgiving (Phil. 4:6)–we are acknowledging His sovereignty, confessing our own total reliance on His grace and power, and looking to Him as Lord, provider, and ruler of the universe–not some kind of celestial Santa. Even when we are making requests, proper prayer is pure worship.”

The stained glass window and photo from the cellars are from Dunfermline Abbey and Palace in Scotland. The window depicts Jesus on the Mount of Olives praying the night he was betrayed with some of his Disciples sleeping nearby.

The cellars afforded Josh, Laura, Greg and me our own mini praise and worship time to our Lord God singing Praise God from Whom all Blessings Flow.

The Round Church Cambridge

This will be the last post of our travel journal for our time in Cambridge from March 8th-March 14th, 2026. This post will cover Friday late afternoon and evening into Saturday March 14th.

On Friday afternoon as we made our way back to The Wilde, we noticed the Round Church was open to visitors.

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, universally known as the Round Church, is one of only four surviving medieval round churches in England. Built around 1130 by the Fraternity of the Holy Sepulchre, its iconic circular design was directly modeled on the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. It is currently managed by the educational charity, Christian Heritage.

This panel was such a great presentation of Christianity.

I missed seeing the images in the tiles.

The historical panels were extensive and so well done. You could spend a lot of time reading the history through the centuries.

 

This brings me to the wrap up of our Cambridge travel journal.

I loved walking in a town with Jesus Lane, All Saints Passage, Jesus Green, Trinity Lane, Trinity College, Christ College, Emmanuel College, Jesus College.

Such rich history and foundation of Christianity in the past. In the present day you wonder how many students have an inkling of all of this.

As is always the case, we came, we wandered, and in no way did we see all there is to see or learn all there is to learn. We are grateful for what we did see and what we did learn. Time will tell if we will ever return.

Our bus ticket was for 9:20 on Saturday March 14th. We were up early and had our showers and were all packed up and ready to go. I went down to the lobby to see what pastries were available to purchase to have with our coffee. The almond croissants were huge. (One would have been good to split) March 14th happens to be my birthday so the hotel manager of the morning gave us two on the house!

Our taxi got us to the National bus stop on Parkside and we were off for our 2-1/2 hour bus ride to Heathrow Airport.

We had time at the airport to enjoy a bite to eat before boarding our plane for our 11+ hour flight home. One weird thing about our boarding was that we were bused to the plane and had to climb up the stairs to board. Thinking back on that, we should have asked for assistance with our carry-ons! (Being over 70)

Woohoo! We had a window row to ourselves so we were able to stretch out our legs over the course of the flight. The attendants found out (I told them) that it was my birthday so champagne arrived almost immediately and then when we got off the plane in Seattle, a Happy Birthday announcement was made over the speakers. Arriving in Seattle, we went through customs and then waited for our short hop flight to Spokane.

In Spokane, our son was waiting to drive us home with our car decorated and stuffed with balloons to wish me a Happy Birthday. Our Grands included these sweet cards.

And that my friends, is the end of this travel story.

Life goes on and the ordinary continues and we thank God for that, too.