Friday’s Fave Five

It’s been awhile since I’ve participated in Susanne’s Friday’s Fave Five. I hope to visit some old friends today.

Friday’s Fave Five is a place to come on Friday’s and think back over your week and just post about 5 favorite things from your week. It can be anything that tickled your fancy over the week. Favorite quotes, posts, happenings, scriptures, recipes, pictures, great internet finds, etc., etc. Go ahead and grab the button and make your own post. Be as detailed as you like, the more detail the more fun for those of us visiting. More guidelines can be found on Susanne’s blog, Living to Tell the Story.

1.Thankful for our snow covered landscape for many reasons. One of those reasons is the fact that we can ignore what’s under all that snow. No mowing or clearing brush or pulling weeds. Another snow episode is forecast for us today into tomorrow.

2. We dropped off our original wedding bands, my original engagement ring and my birthstone ring to the only jeweler in Colville to be sized. I’m thankful for the in-house service and that we’ll be able to wear those rings again after many many years of them sitting in storage instead of on our fingers.

3. We had a lovely dinner last evening at our kids’ home with our DIL’s family. Addy is loved by a so many.

4. I received a thank you note in the mail yesterday addressed to Aunt ellen from our niece, Hope, handwritten. That was the favorite piece of mail I’ve had in a month.

5. Thankful for great Bible teachers like John MacArthur at Grace to You and Alistair Begg at Truth for Life. February 9th is the 50 year anniversary of John MacArthur as pastor at Grace Community Church in California. Grace Community Church was the first church Dear and I attended when we were married and living in West Los Angeles in 1974-1975. I like to listen to the daily broadcasts from these two organizations and they enrich my life.

A bonus shot…

Addy has a new ride and she’s doing exceptional with potty training.

We are thankful for a car that can maneuver in the snow with good snow tires. If we get a new car for this area it will have a heated steering wheel and heated car seats!

What’s a favorite of yours this week?

Thoughtful Thursday

I’m changing things up and nixing my Quotes of the Week on Friday for posts on Thursday that I’m calling Thoughtful Thursday.

The photo above is a portion of the road we travel to get to town, to our kids’ home, to church. We enjoy the landscape along the way. What you can’t see or smell is the aftermath of someone hitting a skunk. As our dear daughter-in-law’s Granny says, you travel skunk alley to get to town! She is right. In the short time we’ve lived here and traveled this road we’ve seen and smelled over 10 skunks that were not smart enough to stay off the road. Just keeping things real. One more thing about skunks, their fragrance lingers long after they are gone.

This morning we woke up to 4 degrees F. Brrr. So thankful for a furnace that warms up the inside of our home.

In the morning I’ve tried to start a regiment of reading before I turn on my computer while I drink my cup of coffee. I’m reading the Bible, a daily dose of Spurgeon and a devotional I pull off our bookshelf. The devotional with 140 meditations that I’m reading at present is Taste and See by John Piper. In today’s reading he quotes some of his beloved English professor’s resolutions from a talk in 1976. Piper says of Dr. Kilby that he had a pastoral heart and a poet’s eye. He pled with us to stop seeking mental health in the mirror of self-analysis, but instead drink in the remedies of God in nature. He was not naïve. He knew of sin. He knew of the necessity of redemption in Christ. But he would have said that Christ purchased new eyes for us as well as new hearts.

Here are a few of his resolutions I’ll share here. Awakening Amazement at the Strange Glory of Ordinary Things

At least once every day I shall look steadily up at the sky and remember that I, a consciousness with a conscience, am on a planet traveling in space with wonderfully mysterious things above and about me.
I shall not fall into the falsehood that this day, or any day, is merely another ambiguous and plodding twenty-four hours, but rather a unique event, filled, if I so wish, with worthy potentialities. I shall not be fool enough to suppose that trouble and pain are wholly evil parentheses in my existence, but just as likely ladders to be climbed toward moral and spiritual manhood.
I shall open my eyes and ears. Once every day I shall simply stare at a tree, a flower, a cloud, or a person. I shall not be concerned at all to ask what they are but simply be glad that they are. I shall joyfully allow them the mystery of what Lewis calls their “divine, magical, terrifying and ecstatic” existence.

Staring at this tree…

Looking steadily at the sky.

Psalm 19:1-6

The heavens declare the glory of God,
    and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
Day to day pours out speech,
    and night to night reveals knowledge.
There is no speech, nor are there words,
    whose voice is not heard.
Their voice goes out through all the earth,
    and their words to the end of the world.
In them he has set a tent for the sun,
which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber,
    and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy.
Its rising is from the end of the heavens,
    and its circuit to the end of them,
    and there is nothing hidden from its heat.

Hoping your Thursday is filled with moments of awe and gratefulness.

My Winter Views…

Many people in our new corner of the world have said that we are having a mild winter and that we haven’t had enough snow. We are happy to get a mild introduction since this is our first winter living here. In the future I’ll post our Spring views and our summer views.

All these trees are part of our front yard. I haven’t counted them all yet. We have many more in our backyard.

Here comes the snow plow. We are really happy to have all these trees between us and the road. We are also grateful that we live on a road that is regularly plowed during the week. It’s a county road and does not get plowed on the weekend.

This was the very first person we’ve ever seen walking along the road. Not a great road for walking.

This is a side view to the north of us.

Outside our kitchen and dining room windows.

I’ll post my backyard views soon.

The last couple days we’ve started out at about 12 degrees and have stayed below freezing throughout the day. Last night was so clear and it was amazing to see stars, so many stars. That is one of the wonderful things about living in the country without lots of street lights. I’m still waiting to see an owl. We heard one a couple mornings ago.

What’s going on in your corner of the world?

Tuesdays With Moisi Video

Our brother Steve recorded this YouTube video of our pop (Moisi) giving the Christmas 2012 blessing at their Christmas Eve meal. My mom seemed to be prophetic in stating this might be the last Christmas. She died in September of 2013 on her and our pop’s 70th wedding anniversary, September 13, 2013. You’ve been reading Moisi’s life story in his own words and I thought it would be nice for you to hear him, too. Moisi was 89 at the time of this video taken in Nuevo, California.

Our mom checking on the Lopsha for the Christmas Eve gathering.

January Recap in Mosaics

January was packed with important celebrations and family time. I’m adding some photos and mosaics here for the sake of my memories that might be redundant to you. I’ll be linking up with Angie for Mosaic Monday. Thanks for hosting, Angie. Be forewarned that this post is overloaded with photos.

We celebrated three family birthdays in January. Dan and Jamie both had birthdays a day apart and we enjoyed dinner at our country bungalow in celebration of their birthdays.

Our oldest had a milestone birthday and his office celebrated him well along with other family and friends on the west side of the Cascades. We gave him his gifts early at Christmas and added a gift when we all gathered in Arizona 5 days after his birthday.

We handed down grandfather Rex’s Bible to Josh while we were in Arizona.

Thursday January 24th was travel day to Arizona for most of us. Josh and Laura were at the house already working nonstop to furnish it for our arrival. Friday started with some work on putting furniture together and then was Zoo/Old Town Scottsdale day. Saturday was shopping/work day, cousin/nephew-niece dinner. We broke in the new barbecue. Sunday was staging/photo and lunch/park and puzzle day. Josh and Laura flew home on Sunday. Monday morning Katie and Andrew flew home and then Addy’s Great Granny and Jim drove up to have lunch with us. (Photo Fail) They are snow birding in Arizona until March. Tuesday was our travel day flying back to our snow covered world.

8 adults to 1 child at the park. I don’t know how one person can manage a child in a busy park!

We were all happy to get a good dose of Vitamin D.

And the contrast of what we returned home to…

Our kids on the westside returned home to this…

Helping one another get Andrew and Katie’s home ready to move into.

Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. Galatians 6:2 (ESV)

Click on Airbnb to see the listing for this beautiful property in Surprise, Arizona. We highly recommend it.

Today we still have snow on the ground and are getting a weather warning for very cold temperatures overnight. The sun is breaking through the clouds. The Puget Sound area of Washington got a good snowfall overnight. Our kids on the west side of the mountains measured 7 inches this morning which means everything will come to a stand still in the Seattle area. Katie and Andrew moved into their new home over the weekend just in time to be snowed in. Hope all is well in your corner of the world.

Sweetly the Holy Hymn

Sweetly the Holy Hymn

Sweetly the holy hymn
Breaks on the morning air;
Before the world with smoke is dim
We meet to offer prayer.

While flowers are wet with dews,
Dew of our souls, descend:
Ere yet the sun the day renews,
O Lord, Thy Spirit send.

Upon the battlefield,
Before the fight begins,
We seek, O Lord, Thy sheltering shield,
To guard us from our sins.

Ere yet our vessel sails
Upon the stream of day
We plead, O Lord, for heavenly gales
To speed us on our way!

On the lone mountain side,
Before the morning’s light,
The Man of sorrows wept and cried,
And rose refreshed with might.

Oh, hear us then, for we
Are very weak and frail,
We make the Savior’s name our plea,
And surely must prevail.

Words: Charles Spurgeon, 1849.

All Creatures…

…great and small. Our Lord God made them all. Last Friday, while we were in Arizona, we took a trip to the Phoenix Zoo. The weather was in the 70’s and very pleasant. This post will take the place of my Quotes of the Week.

We waited a long time to see one of the three elephants the zoo has in residence.

And God said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.” So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. Genesis 1:20-21

And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds—livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so. And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. Genesis 1:24-25

Psalm 104:10-12, You make springs gush forth in the valleys; they flow between the hills; they give drink to every beast of the field; the wild donkeys quench their thirst. Beside them the birds of the heavens dwell; they sing among the branches.

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? Matthew 6:25-27

While we were looking at the giraffes in the distance behind a low fence this hummingbird came right up to the plant next to us and I was able to take a lot of photos while our heavenly father provided food for it.

Laura captured the photo of the sun beaming down on Jamie right on our developing grandson who is due in April.

For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. Psalm 139:13 (ESV)

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.

Genesis 1:26-27

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.

Psalm 139:14

With thankful hearts we left the zoo and headed to Old Scottsdale to have another walk about and find a spot for dinner.

Strikingly Different

We left Arizona yesterday flying into Spokane and were met with the striking difference in temperatures. This morning we started out at 12 degrees here in Colville. We’ve warmed up to 14 while I’m typing this. Today will be a catchup day for me. I’m behind with emails, blog visits and laundry. The photo of the sweet hummingbird was taken during our time at the Phoenix Zoo enjoying the 70 degree weather. We soaked it in and I’ll be posting more from Arizona after I catch my breath.

To those of you who are experiencing the deep freeze stay safe and warm!

Tuesdays With Moisi ~ 16

Our Pop’s story continued…

This is our Pop’s story dictated verbally by him a few years ago. I’ll be sharing excerpts every Tuesday. When I add to his story or explain a photo I will Italicize my words. Our Pop’s words will not be italicized. Our mom does not come into Pop’s story until “Tuesdays With Moisi ~ 9” even though I’ve posted photos of her before #9. I have very few photos from our parents’ life in Russia and Persia. At the end of my Tuesday posts I’ll add links to all the other posts.

My parents in front of our home in Montebello, 305 Los Angeles Ave.

In 1971 we moved yet again to a larger home in Whittier. I became a pastor to a small Russian church in Orange County for a year.

Our parents and the twins in our home in La Mirada/Whittier, California, on Arroyo Dr.

Our next move took us sixty miles southeast of Los Angeles to the town of Wildomar where I built a house in 1983. In 1987 we moved to Yorba Linda in Orange County.

Christmas in Wildomar in the home our Pop built from the ground up. Our mom with all her daughters/daughters in law as of 1984.

In 1990 I returned to the place of my birth in Russia. Some things there had changed while others had not. It was then that I began to be concerned for the eternal welfare of my relatives still living in the same place where I grew up. Specifically, I was concerned that they come to know Jesus Christ as I had come to know Him. In 1992, I returned and stayed for two and a half months. In 1993 I stayed for three months. I went twice in 1994 and once in 1995. In all my visits I was striving to point my relatives to Jesus Christ. In 1996, while I was there, my grand-niece, Natasha, was the first convert. It was then that I saw the need for mentoring and discipleship on my part.

Moisi baptizing his grand niece, Natasha. (this photo is missing and I’ll try to replace it soon)

(Our parents in front of their home in Yorba Linda)

So in early 1997 we sold our home in Yorba Linda and Nadia and I went to Russia for an entire year. To begin with, we began a Sunday School ministry. The first Sunday saw sixteen visitors – mainly children. The next Sunday, attendance jumped to sixty.

Our next step was to develop a church along with the Sunday School. Attendance was small at first but then began to grow to twenty, then thirty, then fifty. We came back to the U.S. in 1998, stayed home for three months and then returned to Russia for another full year of ministry. From 2000 to 2006 we returned for three month ministry stints each year. As a result of our ministry, thirty-six people, young and old, came to the Lord and were baptized – for which we are most thankful. In addition to this, I estimate that I took about $250,000 into Russia to meet the various financial needs of both Christians and non-Christians alike.

My parents in Russia. They prepared a meal every Sunday for all those who came to the church gathering.

This is the home that was purchased that my parents lived in and held church services in.

Moisi built this baptistry in the yard of the church so they didn’t have to go to a local lake or river for baptisms.

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 will come to know Jesus as I have come to know Him.

This is the end of the story our Pop dictated. I will be filling in some blanks in future Tuesday With Moisi posts. Next week I’ll share a YouTube video our brother Steve recorded at the family Christmas gathering in 2012.

Tuedays With Moisi 1

Tuesdays With Moisi 2

Tuesdays With Moisi 3

Tuesdays With Moisi 4

Tuesdays With Moisi 5

Tuesdays With Moisi 6

Tuesdays With Moisi 7

Tuesdays With Moisi 8

Tuesdays With Moisi 9

Tuesdays With Moisi 10

Tuesdays With Moisi 11

Tuesdays With Moisi 12