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I hate to have to ask but this is the time of year I always get hay fever type allergies that go down into my chest and become asthma, and then become bronchitis or pneumonia..  This year they pretty much bypassed the hay fever symptoms and went straight to asthma.

I’m having trouble breathing tonight even after using an inhaler…  it’s one week before final exams and needing to do data entry for grades at semester’s end (which is the 30th), so I can’t really afford to take time off right now.

Been taking airborne, acidophilus, Zyrtec (occasionally, because one of the side effects can be “difficulty breathing”), etc.

Please pray for me?

Thank you,
Love,Gerrie

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Our family is growing, and with it, Christmas is changing for us:)  Oh, it’s till presents and family get-togethers, and for me, cherishing and rejoicing that Jesus gave up the privileges of being God to become one of us.  But we now have to spread it out!

My youngest son Russell’s mother-in-law just got married, so she now goes to her in-laws for Christmas Eve.  We all get together at my house or her house for Thanksgiving, so this year for Christmas, she had us all over for the “eve” of Christmas Eve — Wednesday night.  We had tamales (traditional Hispanic Christmas food), and rice, etc. She even gave me a gift, a  container of “chocolates of the world”!

Then Christmas Eve we all went to Russell’s house and exchanged presents.  My daughter and her husband then left to go to her in-law’s for the rest of Christmas Eve.  My daughter in law fixed a wonderful dinner, and Russ barbecued tri-tip roast for the meal.  I brought creamed corn, which everybody has always loved since I brought it to  my in-laws for Thanksgiving.  After being with family I went to my church’s 11 pm Christmas Eve service for the first time — it was the most joyous service I’ve ever attended!

Then on Christmas morning my grandson went to his dad’s house (it’s part of having divorced parents, but he takes it all in stride), to be with daddy and grandma and open presents there, etc.

Late Christmas morning I went back to Russell’s house just to hang out.  Baby Mila is so precious, she recognizes me now and smiles when she sees me.  She is so cute, she “talks” a lot, even moves her tongue to try and imitate speech.  Her big present was an activity center you sit in the middle of and play with about 8 different things, and she was laughing and talking and singing to the toys.

Late in the afternoon they went to my daughter in law’s grandmother’s house, and I could have gone, but instead I went home (they live about 4 blocks away) and took a nap and started knitting again.

Like my last blog said, I’m learning to make hats.  I finished hats for the 3 grandchildren here (of course little Mila looks so cute in her pink hat), and Russell’s mom-in-law saw the hats and asked me to make her one.

I’m finding knitting is very relaxing once I settle into the routine of the pattern.  So I’m looking into knitting hats for charity.  Any of you who knit or crochet and love it and have run out of people to make thiings for, charity would be a great way to go.  Many of the organizations are looking for yarn donations, too, even “scraps”… so it would be a great way to get rid of what you don’t need.

One good way to find out about organizations is on the www.lionbrand.com  website.  This is the time of year we should be thinking about people less fortunate, so I think it’s appropriate to include this in a blog about Christmas.

I hope you all had a joyous and relaxing Christmas, too.  Blessings to everybody!

Love to all, Gerrie

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I have a small head.  Adult hats swim on me, and those adjustable baseball hats just look funny when they’re made to be small enough to stay on my head properly.  According to the measureents, my size is child’s medium (according to Land’s End). 

Donna7  showed hats she’s made, and that gave me the idea to learn to knit hats for myself and my grandkids. I searched the internet and found a few hat patterns that seemed easy enough, bought some yarn and long knitting needles, and started in.  My grandmother taught me to knit when I was a little girl, but the only garment I’ve ever made till now has been a scarf.  I have crocheted lots of things, though.

I’m not very fast, I made lots of mistakes, and it took me over a week to make one.  But it’s a HAT, and it fits me, which means it will fit at least one grandson (his size baseball cap fits me perfectly).  So now to make more:)

Why post this?  Because if I can do it, so can you.  The internet, YouTube especially, is full of videos on how to knit and crochet.  It’s where I looked to learn how to cast on stitches, how to decrease, and how to bind off (close off the last row), and especially, how to purl.  I never could figure that out till watching YouTube videos.

Try it, you might like it, and like me, find it to be a bit of a stress-reliever. 

Love to all,
Gerrie

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Funny thing about being a “mature” Christian, the Lord always finds ways to let us know we’re not “all grown up” yet.  Last week I realized that December 5th is the 40th “anniversary” of my baptism.  It’s a bit comical, I was baptized in water 40 years ago and baptized with the Holy Spirit only 4 years ago

After coming out of a religious cult into a mainstream church, I still have questions.  Last week I attended the annual Autumn Leadership Conference at Church on the Way.  I went for the purpose of straightening out my thinking about the definition and “operation” of the Kingdom of God.  I’ll spare you the details of what I used to believe… let’s just say that my old church limited its definition to “the Millennium.”

And as such, it seemed like an oxymoron to hear people talking about taking a city for the Kingdom, or spreading Kingdom territory, etc.  I knew the scriptures in Matt. 28 and others telling us to go to all the world and preach the Kingdom, but the old church limited that to just a “witness” and whomever God called, that was it, and we were special and the only ones that would be saved and enter the Kingdom (when it came).

I knew it’s true that (the teeny piece of truth in the mix) this is Satan’s world, not God’s world, and it won’t truly be God’s world until Jesus comes and takes it over.  I live for that day.  So statements about taking down strongholds and spreading the Kingdom didn’t make sense to me.

There is an extraordinary pastor from Honduras that preached one night, and I had to miss it live (attempting to get to a class for my credential).  I listened to it on CD almost twice through.  He preached in Spanish and the pastor of Church on the Way interpreted it into English.  For me it was like getting it twice because I speak Spanish.

God helped me understand — we who are saved are not “citizens of this world” but are citizens of God’s Kingdom.  In that sense, we are under Kingdom rule, and where we are is “Kingdom territory”.  When we preach the gospel or lead individuals to Christ, we are “increasing” the number of saved people that come under Kingdom rule.  Therefore we increase Kingdom territory.  This is our job until the return of Christ. We’re disciples of Christ sent out “to all the world.” (and by the way, sometimes our example preaches louder than our words.)

Then with that comes the fact that when we tear down strongholds or break Satan’s influence or hold on a city, we are forcing “Satan’s world” (and his minions) to LET GO of its hold on people, so then they can be saved and come under Kingdom rule, and therefore be “part of” God’s Kingdom.  That’s partially what Jesus meant when he said He came to “set the captives free.”

This pastor from Honduras has preached the gospel so strongly that people involved in the occult hate him and have threatened his life.  At least twice he was attacked and left for dead.  Occult practices are very common in many parts of the world, and much of the “Latin” world is affected by this.  When the pastor fought to take the city, shamans and witches would pronounce curses on him and the Christians with him.

The church he pastored started as a congregation of 500.  Now it’s in the thousands.  His city (I forget the name of it) and really all of Honduras has gotten to the point where over 50% are Christians!  On a topical map of North and South America, the color green means the majority are Christians.  Only Honduras and the U.S. are green.

He said the time of apathy is over.  The time of simply going to church and being comfortable is over.  We need to weep over the people who don’t have Christ in our cities and fight for them.  We need to live as true Christians and not play games any more and live FOR the Kingdom.  We need to be filled with the Holy Spirit and be real men and women of God so our children see our example and follow.  We older Christians need to disciple the younger.

So my questions about the Kingdom have been answered, and I can dive in without reservations in the back of my mind!  Praise God!

Also during and right after the conference, the Lord has answered questions I’ve had for 4 years about my gifts and areas of service.  I wasn’t sure what gifts I had other than two, and funny, the other gifts have been functioning and growing inside me for many years, but I didn’t realize they were gifts!  So I think now the Holy Spirit is going to “activate” and “release” them even more!

That means I get to participate and watch the Church get built some more:)

Praise and thanks to God, and to those of you who pray for me.  I pray for you too:)

Love, Gerrie

Isn’t this cute?  Now I know where they’re putting it:)

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I really don’t know what to write.  It’s either a couple of sentences or a book.  I don’t have time for a book right now:)  and I don’t want to torture anybody.

Just know I do read the blogs of those I know and love, and I pray for you, too.  Your friendships mean a lot to me, and I’m blessed to call you friends.

This election is driving me crazy because I believe that unless God intervenes we’re in for a “wild ride” to say the least.  In California we also have to decide whether to declare marriage as between one man and one woman, and whether to require parents to be notified if their under-age daughter has an abortion.  To me these are no brainers, but people aren’t like they were when I was a little girl, so I just hope there are enough non-liberal people out there to help us choose correctly.

And ok I’ll be honest one silly reason to write is so I can put the Madagascar 2 on my blog:)  It’s cute and it comes with 500 credits:)  Not sure where it goes when I do put it in.  We’ll find out, huh?

Now I have to write a formal lesson plan for my ASL2 class because my university Mentor is coming to observe. 

Everybody have a wonderful week:)

Love to all,
Gerrie