Can summer reading, you know the romance novel on the beach type book you love to put in the mix of all te homeschool how to books we read, bring a depth to your faith walk? I really love historical fiction and although my favorites tend to be Francine Rivers and Bodie Theon, I have just discovered Liz Curtis Higgs the fiction writer. I love her Bad Girls Bible Studies and am even teacing one of them in the fall. Discovering her fiction Stories and the Online Bible Study that goes with it makes it the perfect Beach book.

So the one I am reading is called "Grace in Thine Eyes". It is set in Bonny Scotland in the year 1808 about a young girl name Davina. So where are the similarities and the Biblical references? This is a modern day story of Dinah, with loads of twists and turns.

On Liz Curtis Higgs Website you can find a downloadable Bible study. Information about the Storyline HERE and a discussion guide for a book club Here

Now I am sure you are wondering why this is my Show and tell. Well, because Mike and I and two of our youngest grandchildren are going camping next week, that is why this is my show and tell. We have found a place that is pretty smokeless and we are taking the current window and heading out to the wilderness. I am bringing this book for my enjoyment! You know that moment when you have hiked as far as one can , climbed every rock in the park ,swam in the icy lake and climbed every tree playing fairies in the glen so that the granddaughters actually take a nap and I can read? Okay so it is a pipe dream, but I am bringing it just incase.

I hope you have a wonderful restful moment atleast once during the summer where you can escape in the pages of a good book. Next week I should have pictures of mine!

Show and Tell is Hosted by CanadaGirl and is one of my favorite times to blog. Canadagirl is just waiting for you to join us, so come on by.We love the company!

 

I have a new link for you and it is free and it is a brand new song! Our worship leader Trent Smith who is incredibly gifted of the Lord has uploaded a new song on our churches website which is available for download for all of you who have those fancy song players on your blogs. If you dont have a fancy song player you can still listen to it on the website.

So for your listening pleasure and to spur you on to make a difference in your generation and as homeschool moms in the generation to come, Come and listen and be blessed... HERE

Oh and the background singers... that is our church, we ROCK!

Because of Jesus, Bobbie

I love sharing fun places I have visitied with you on Weblink Wednesday and although this is not Tightwad Tuesday, I LOVE FREE!So maybe this is a combo post.

So today's weblink is for 20 (Twenty) free downloadable Fonts for you Scrapbookin' Homeschoolin' moms!

This is for a short time only, so not a link you want to save and forget. Nope this is one you want to do right away.

I hope you have lots of fun with them andmaybe latter we can share what we did with them?

Here is the link ... http://www.scrapnfonts.com/searchprod.php?showingonly=Free

You can find a lot of fun links at SoCalVal's website please stop by for a visit.

I also want to mention that our sky is blue, the air was clean enough yesterday I could begin Water Aerobics, I am riding my bike 4-5 miles a day, walking a mile and going to sign up for After care at my therapist's today. (kind of like using it for a gym,but cheaper).

Thank you for all of your prayers, for the fire, the firemen, our community and for me. We are all doing well.

As I looked at our mountains and firefighters my heart has been focusing on God our creator. There has been so much going on the last few weeks from the moment the lightning first struck our mountain until today when we are told all is well. It was well before the lightning came , it is well now and it will be well when all the fires are out. I know this because it is well with my soul. God is our creator. he created the lightning without the rain the day out mountains burst into flames. He created the river that sits between the mountain and our town and He created the Bravest of men that were designed and knit inside their mother's womb to combat these flames and turn back the tempest. Why?

As in all things, so that He may be glorified! And He has absolutely been glorified every moment by this community and their loving response to the Firefighters and those that have become victims of the flames. They have taken Love one another as I have loved you to the bank and God was there to cash the check! In this little town "A little bit above Paradise" as we truly believe, we have touched lives from all over the nation. We have shown the government that we can do simple what they need years of papers and books to do. We have opened our hearts as a community, and not just a community of Believers in Jesus, but as a community that believes together works better than solitary. All that mattered is each other. No politics, no blame  and no issues that divide us. Just what can I do to help, where can I serve and what do you need. I really think the town of Magalia made God smile these last weeks of uncertainty.

With His own words I will share what God has shared with me today and maybe you too will be blessed.

 

Psalm 102:18

Let this be recorded for future generations, so that a nation yet to be created will praise the LORD.

Isaiah 40:26

Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.

Isaiah 45:8

"You heavens above, rain down righteousness; let the clouds shower it down. Let the earth open wide, let salvation spring up, let righteousness grow with it; I, the Lord, have created it

Col. 1:16

For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.

Numbers 16:35

Then God sent lightning.

Job 37:11

And yes, it's God who fills clouds with rainwater and hurls lightning from them every which way

Job 38:24

Can you find your way to where lightning is launched, or to the place from which the wind blows

Job 38:35

Can you take charge of the lightning bolts and have them report to you for orders? What Do You Have to Say for Yourself?

Jeremiah 11:16

A mighty oak tree, majestic and glorious - that's how I once described you. But it will only take a clap of thunder and a bolt of lightning to leave you a shattered wreck

Eph 2:10

For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Gen 5:2

He created them male and female, and he blessed them and called them "human."

Pro 30:4

Who but God goes up to heaven and comes back down? Who holds the wind in his fists? Who wraps up the oceans in his cloak? Who has created the whole wide world? What is his name – and his son's name? Tell me if you know!

Matthew 1:21

And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, ^F7 for he will save his people from their sins."

1 Jonh3:23

And this is his commandment: We must believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as he commanded us.

God is our creator, the creator of all things. God created the lightning and the river on the mountainside and the Firefighters which He Himself graced us with to hold back the flames from crossing the river. For this we are eternally grateful. Thank you Lord.

The work is not done and the fire not yet gone, but the Lord Jesus knows this too.

I updated our fire last night so that post is below this one. OutBack did come and bbq for our Firefighters, they did hold back the fire one more night and we still have to wear surgical masks out of doors. But I wanted you to see the one day in the last three weeks we didn't have to wear masks. God gave us a magnificant 4th of July and we enjoyed every inch of the blue sky in small Dogtowne Fair Fashion.

We only had two of our grandchildren with us as the other four Were off at Summer camp.

We had Horsie rides!

and Donkey rides! (The famous Donkey from our Passion Play)

Played games (make sure you notice the CANE and no longer a walker!)

We went fishing and caught a lot of fish, even an octopus!

Since there were only two grandkids with us....

we did something we have never done before...

We got our faces painted!

SHe sat so still!

 

The perfect day!

I know I have not updated in a while and I had hoped to share with you that all our fires were out and the Firefighters had left. BUT that was only for the week-end. The fourth of July gave us amazingly blue skies. We had not seen blue in a while so it was Brilliant. The Dogtowne Fair went on as planned and grandkids ate cotton candy and had their faces painted. All the Fire fighters had gone ove r to the Belden and Concow fires and we had hoped the worst was over.

 

THEN Tuesday came! So unexpectedly it arrived. We woke up at 4:30am to take our neice to the hospital for some routine testing and as usual, we glanced out the window. Well usual for the  last month anyway! We did NOT like what we saw, WIND! The wind did exactly what we knew it would do ignite and fan the flames. ( So many Bible references here). As we drove South to the Hospital you could chew the air. The ashes and pieces of charcoal embers floated from the sky. Ashes the size of quarters, embers as long as your baby finger. They did not glow, but they were warm. We picked up breathing masks while we were at the hospital and came home after all the tests were done. The air was darker than it had been at 4:30 am, the smell of burning wood filled the air. And I knew, the fire fighters would be back, and back they did come.

Tuesday afternoon we were put on Precautionary evacuation which means start packing. We packed up the car and waited. Soon the phone rang. It confirmed the Precautionary Evac with a Reverse 911 call. That means instead of you calling 911, they call you and let you know danger lurks outside your door. An hour later a Chico K-9 police troop was at out door strongly "recommending" that we leave. Since we were only Pre evac status he could not tell us to go but since the winds were due to pick up in an hour he suggested we go now. Hoping it would be Orderly before panic sets in like it did with the Humbolt Fire which had four hour traffic jams. We knew exactly what to do, grab the last few things, and wait for our neice in the shower!  Truth is I took a shower when the phone call came , memories of Hurricane Andrew do not fade away. So after the shower we loaded in the car, stopped at the church, checked on the firefighters and headed to a friends home in Chico. Well two of us did, my neice wanted to stay at Grandpa Al's so we took her there.

In the morning after being made pancakes by our gracious hostess, we drove back up the hill to see what was going on, and the best place to do that is at The Magalia Community Church feeding Fire fighters! I love being there taking care of these firefighters than being anywhere. They are so grateful and so thankful and so ready for a hot meal! Last night we had a crew that hadn't eaten a hot meal in 18 days! Our California Firefighters have been fighting from the bottom of the state to the top of the state, a hot meal is the least we can do.

Today I saw that Dave Price from the Early show is here, well in Paradise, the news still seems to think all of the Ridge is Paradise. Maybe he will find his way to our little Magalia community Church and have OUTBACK tonight with the firefighters. They (Outback) have scheduled three times, cancelled twice so we shall see if they arrive tonight. We have had amazing relationships with Big Corperations here. The Holiday Market , Save-Mart and Safeway have given abundantly! Rite-aid has kept them stocked in shampoos, soaps and deodrant. Yesterday Rite-aid sent free Ice cream coupons for the fire fighters.

Well that tells you what we are doing...I am back in my home today hoping the helicopters keep flying and the winds stay down. The phone is waiting for another evac call, but for Today we are here. I have three of my grandchildren today while Heather does the Fire fighter meals with the oldest three. As I type these words I am reminded of the song (this is for Lori) "For Today Remind me I was made to worship You"....

I ant to also tell you about our firefighters and the gift of service they bring aay from the flames. After dinner, they asked to wash dishes, asked where the janitors closet was and cleaned the bathroom, vacuumed and mopped the sanctuary. So they do have a secret identity, Janitors by day Firefighters by night.

Please pray for their families. They have been without their firefighter husbands, dads, wives, moms for a very long time. One we talked to last noight has a 4yo , twin 2yos and a 2month old baby at home. His time of duty is 21 days. That mama needs our prayers and I know YOU know that full well!

here is a link to Dave Price's interview http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/main500251.shtml?id=4247073n&channel=/sections/earlyshow/videoplayer500202.shtml

I do have pictures and will post them when I can, currently they are either on My Beloved's phone, or his Harddrive which is packed in the car.

I was googling one thing and discovered another....

One of the teen Summer Missionaries here had parts of her blog in Impact Magazine.

One of the parts, talked about my granddaughter Tirzah.

http://www.sbcimpact.net/2008/06/14/missions-impact-harei-yeshua/

As I read it, I couldn't help but wonder, when did she become so wise?

 

This was shot this morning my Pickiechickie

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8620193546373710559

We are still under smoke although the coming thunderstorms (hopefully with rain and no lightening ) will sweep a little of it away. Haven't seen the sky in a week.

Zemeira got a new nebulizer and lots of meds and had a very good day today.

Tomorrow depending on th eweather , the wind and the Fire (yes I have an Earth Wind and Fire song in my head) it is suppose to go from Hazardeous to unhealthy.... duh!

God is still fulfilling needs. The Fire fighters say they have never had anyone do this for them. And that makes me sad, because they all should do this for them. It feels so right to take care of the ones that want to protect us.

They change out every 7-8 days so the ones we found totally neglected go home tomorrow. But they are staying here til morning so their replacements know what they went through and realize the love here... too cool!

Subway and Olive Garne did lunch yesterday. So tell your local one thank you. I was mad a Subway obver the Homeschool thing but this redeems them!

Outback postponed their Monday visit because they want enough steaks for all the guys ( very cool)

Sons of Italy will be cooking on Monday night.

And God loaned the church and ice maker when their broke.

This is so ......GOD!

I wish you could be apart of this!

Man, I am overwhelmed by the hearts of people in this town. Our FF want for nothing! From chapstick the shampoo and more food than the church can hold! Tonight the staging group of fire fighters decided they needed to cook dinner tonight for the volunteers! How sweet that was!

My sister Terri has been running around hitting up all the stores for supplies. She worked at most of them in the last 30 years so she is the perfect one to hit them up!

Someone from Nashville sent them forty yes FORTY pounds of meat and tomorrow turkeys arrive!

I found a local Massage therapist that was more than happy to come up and give these guys massages today! "Oh sure I will come and massage hunky firefighters!

A local TV Satelitte company is coming down to give them TV while they are here at the church.

And Out Back Steak House is coming Monday to do a BBQ from 4-10pm!

Never have Firefighters been so spoiled! And never has a community been so thankful.

We had our first wave of cautionary evacuations today. The Air quality was the worst in the nation today at an average 240 it was said to be 300 and up to 600 in some areas.

My granddaughter is having horrid asthma attacks and has a very high fever tonight so if you could pray for Zemeira that would be awesome.

And lastly, here is the article from the Newspaper

http://www.paradisepost.com/ci_9699321?source=rss_viewed

Have I told you lately how much I love living here?

It was just a little thought. We had had so many fires and it just seemed like a little way to say thank you. Our Christian Bookstore had powerbars and we had firefighters, I wonder if they would give me their bars for our firefighters? So I asked. And Sue did.

I couldn't take them right away so I gave them to our six year old Granddaughter to give them when she went to evening services at Church. The Firefighters are staging at the church. When Zemeria took them the bars and they were so appreciative, they asked if they could use the church bathroom. OMG! They had been in the parking lot for three days and no one had said come inside. They were sleeping in the smoke and the rocks! They had only MRE's and now Zemeira's power bars.

Well, that was all my DD needed to hear. Next thing I knew she had gone to the supermarket bought dinner for 30 firefighters and as shedid clerks, customers and even the manager added to her meal. She left with two carts of food! She fed them and her Sam called the Pastor who owns the church they meet in and got premission for them to sleep indoors. This morning that congregation fed them breakfast.

It seems all the FF had good places to sleep lots of food and bunkhouses and these guys were just out of the loop so to speak. This morning Heatherlee had called the local fitness clubs and the Homeowners Association  and they opened their doors so our FF could take showers! Than after going to thenet411 and telling them they needed donations at the church to feed them, the flood gates opened.

thenet411 in three hours managed to get supplies to the church and helpers to have a full on BBQ for 100 firemen! Really, one church donated the burgers and buns a business bought the beans, individuals bought condiments and even pickles and lettuce. They brought paper products etc!Really you have never seen anything like it. Truly amazing!

Once word got out, everyone started bringing food Safeway donated over 350 ears of corn , 56 water melons and 164 eggs!

By the end of dinner service tonight my daughter said they had more food than they could store. This is good because they say the fires will be burning for a while (like after the 4th) so we have a lot of hungry Firefighters to feed for a long time!

I tell you one thing, they will be the best fed firefighters anywhere! Tomorrow morning the local Eagles lodge is sending a cooking crew to the church and they also donated a mess of food.

And it all started with a wisper and a little girl with a power bar!

God is so very Awesome!

Now the smoke is too thick for planes and helicopters to fly so NO assistance there. The fires are growing and blending together. Our air quality is Very hazardous teh index number today was 250! Stay inside don't breathe.

The FF ask you pray for our weather so they can get some control. They need hand crews and have only one. They asked for prayers for the community! Not even themselves. too cool. So pray for them this fire danger is immense. The terrain is impossible to deal with.

Ok guys, that was my day. Oh I forgot to mention I made them homemade tortilla chips. They loved them

Love you all, Because of Jesus, Bobbie