General Family News
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A few Saturdays ago, on the 2nd of January, our family hosted our first Bible Marathon. The marathon lasted about six hours, four of which we spent reading. Mom got the idea for it from Gary Friesen’s book, Decision Making and the Will of God. A couple other families joined us, as we read through Luke, and about three-quarters of Revelation. This was the order of business:
Each willing reader read a pre-assigned passage at a lectern in the middle of the room. At every 7th chapter, we all stood and read a verse around in a circle, until we had finished the passage. We had breaks every hour for discussion and prayer. At the end of the Bible-reading time, we had dinner and fellowship.
I really appreciated the chance to go through a whole book of the Bible in such a short amount of time. I don’t remember ever doing that before. It was also more meaningful to me to hear others reading aloud, instead of just reading to myself. Maybe I’m more of an auditory learner. =) I greatly enjoyed the Bible reading marathon, and I can’t wait to have another one!
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"What should I say about you, Theta? Hey Theta, don't fly! Do you want to read a book? Do you?"
"Yes, I do," said Theta.
"What book do you want to read?"
"One about flying."
"I want to fly. Don't you, Theta? Fluffball! Oops, she pooped."
"Theta wants to write something; she's climbing on
the keybo ard!
That's why the spacing looks so funny."
"Now she's asking for food; she's licking the Num Lock key with her tongue."
"Yum...I think F10 tastes better than Num Lock."
"Have you ever heard of a begging bird that can type?"
"Now I think I'll try to put on Scroll Lock+33333333333333333336666666666666666"
"Did I do all that? Wow! Look at me! I'm a typing birdie!"
"Well, it's time for Theta to say goodbye. She was going to read, remember? Say goodbye, Theta."
"hffffrssgfyp." (Theta walked across the keyboard)
By the way, Theta is
a 8++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ week old cockatiel.
"Stop it, Theta, I'm tryna write! Ok, Theta, let's
go read. No, don't fly! Now you're stretching
your wings."
"Let's get Tim to take our picture....shall we?"
"-----+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
SNBPRTHRHWNWTWRTRPWT B
RR;R;R;R;R;SOSOSOSOS
SOS SAVE OUR SHIP! what
ship?"
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Here is a poem that I wrote a while ago.
It depicts an early morning walk Dad and I shared while we were vacationing at Sandbridge Beach one year.
A September Sunrise
A man and lass from cottage steal,
While the shroud of twilight lingers,
And o’er the moonlit sands of pearl
Their footprints yet imbedded lie,
‘Till foaming waves like a kitten laps them.
As seagulls wake from eventide,
The air grows full of lonely cries;
Footprints cease—the twain have paused,
And over restless wave and dark,
Their wand’ring eyes the sunrise seek.
The father points—they strain to see,
A faint red glow peeks above the horizon,
And while they watch, the growing light,
From pale, to pink, to salmon brightens,
The sun has ris’n triumphantly,
O’er sky and land and man and sea!
~Emily Hynes
"From the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same the Lord's name is to be praised." (Psalm 113:3)
"Thou wilt show me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore." (Psalm 16:11)
"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights." (James 1:17)
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I am so glad that God has given me my younger brother
Tim. When it comes to computers, I'll admit it, he's got a lot
more computer savvy than me. Whenever I want to do anything on
our blog, the conversation goes something like this:
"Hey Tim, how do I write a blog post?"
"Click on the button that says, 'blog post'."
"Where's that?"
And then he shows me on the screen where the button is.
A little while later:
"Tim, I just copied my post into Word to spellcheck it...now the post looks funny. What do I do?"
"You have to use Notepad. Word documents are in rich text, and that won't work on the blog."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Or if I want to check my email:
"Hey Tim, how do I get my email?"
"Get up google, and type in mail.hynesva.com."
"Ok, I got there...now how do I check my email?"
"Click on the button that says Em's email."
"Where?"
"Right there, at the top right-hand corner."
"Oh."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And so the conversation continues. I'm so glad that Tim is
able, ready, and willing to help me on the blog. Without his
help, I don't think this post would even be possible. Thank you, God,
for brothers.
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This Columbus Day weekend I went on a five day mission’s trip to
Beattyville, Kentucky. This is the 6th annual free dental clinic
that this group has done. I went the first time in 2004, with my
home church, Family Bible Fellowship. I was really impressed with
the need of the people there, not just for free dental care, but also
the gospel.
This year, I went with a team of over 50
people, some of which took the 10 hour bus drive to Beattyville.
The dental clinic is held in a gym in Youth Haven Bible Camp. The
team brings some of the dental chairs and equipment, and some of it
just stays there in Kentucky. There were five dentists and two
hygienists serving on this particular trip. I was able to assist
one of the dentists as a clean assistant. Most of the time, I was
arranging the dentist's tools on a tray, disinfecting after each
patient, or taking dirty tools to the sludge line, where everything
underwent a thorough cleaning.
I was blessed by
the unity we had as the Body of Christ. The team had Christians
from all over the place; Virginia, Kentucky, North Carolina, and
California; but they all worked together, and were a powerful witness
to the grace of God. One lady told me that we could never know
how much of a blessing it was to be able to get free dental care;
apparently a lot of the people there can't afford to pay for it.
Our
days started off with breakfast, followed by a group devotional and
singing before we went to the gym to begin the dental work. Mr.
Stevic, who heads up KMM, told me that many patients arrive as early as
4 am. in order to get in line for their treatment. After we open
the clinic at 8:30 am, patients go through the evangelism tables, where
the gospel is shared with them, the triage line, where their dental
needs are assessed, and then into one of three waiting areas: cleaning,
restoration (fillings, dentures and such), or extraction.
Thankfully the dentist I was working with was in the restoration line,
so I didn't have to witness some of the more distasteful scenes.
One young man had half of his teeth extracted one day, and returned the
next to have the other half extracted--apparently the tooth decay was
caused by drugs.
We generally worked till 1:30 pm,
had a quick lunch, and then ran back to our waiting patients.
Sometimes we didn't get finished up with patients for the day until
nine or ten at night. It was exhausting work, but well worth
it. We saw over three hundred patients. There were several
professions of faith, and one lady on our team actually got to lead her
first person to Christ! It was really neat to see how God was
working, and see tangible answers to prayer. On our last evening
there, some of our team sat around a bonfire and shared testimonies and
sang hymns and praise songs. That was a really special
time. There is something touching about seeing other Christians
walking in faith, rejoicing in the Lord, and encouraging others in
Him. It was certainly an unforgettable trip!
 
  
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"O God, You have cast us off; You have broken us down; You have
been displeased; Oh, restore us again! (2) You have made
the earth tremble; You have broken it; Heal its breaches, for it is
shaking. (3) You have shown Your people hard things; You
have made us drink the wine of confusion. (4) You have
given a banner to those who fear You, That it may be displayed because
of the truth. Selah" Psalm 60:1-4 Heal our land oh Lord!
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A couple days ago I said to Becky, Mare, and Sue, “Let’s go organize
the Box Room.” Becky asked me, “What is your strategy?” I said, “ Attack!”
Now you must understand that the aforesaid room got its name because
there everyone dumps boxes and everything else that is too good to throw. It may be just us, but after 9 years in one house things start to pile rather high. Call it our good old New England frugality, but it seems like we save practically everything. Let me think of a few things I found: Pickle jars… some of which collected quite a few crickets  Chinese food containers… to good to throw Plastic shopping bags… must have a couple hundred Computer software… for Windows 3.1 (more than 15 years old!) I
did not realize until I got started how much stuff we had. It is
turning out to be a multiple day task. Quick questions to ask if you
think you should save something: Have I used this in the last 6 months to a year? Do I even remember what this is for?  Do we still have what came in this box? I
have found that the best way to organize is to spread the stuff on a
floor so you can see what you are dealing with. It looks like a tsunami hit our Great Room, and when Mom came to look she said “ oh no!” It is a work in progress. You should see our throw away pile.   
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Beep, Beep, Beep… My alarm went off at 5:30 AM. Remembering that Jon and I had planned to leave for the Wilkes land in just half an hour, I jumped out of bed. We quickly got ready, completed the final packing, and then settled back for the peaceful one hour trip.
A couple hours later we were encouraged with a round-the-campfire wisdom search.
After a nice breakfast we set out to tackle the project of building a lean-to off the Wilkes’ newly built shed.
     
We completed this project just before lunch, following which we had a leisurely afternoon ending in a couple of revival sermons ‘round the ol’ campfire. We also witnessed a stunning display of the God’s glory through a beautiful sunset.
       
I awoke early Sunday morning to the familiar, though unwelcome, feeling of cold feet. After putting on a second layer of clothes I started feeling better, and went outside the tent to warm myself by the fire. As soon as I stepped outside I was awed by a bright moon and stars which clearly revealed constellations…
Waking early turned out to be very special because I was able to experience as it were, the whole creation stirring from its slumbers. From a total stillness I listened as the sounds gradually piled on one another- hooting owls, chirping birds, lowing cattle, and finally the wide yawns and hearty ‘good mornings’ of sleepy brothers and sisters in Christ.
 
Directly following the morning Bible reading time, Daniel Wilkes and I cooked up pancakes for the whole group. What a blast!
Out of the whole time I feel that the most important concept that I learned was to ‘come out’ and be separate from the world, but to check my standards and convictions so that they are Biblically sound. I should also be constantly on the watch so as not to offend a ‘weaker brother’ by my ‘liberty in Christ’.
The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his handiwork. (Psalms 19:1)
The morning stars sang together (Creation) (Job 38:7 )
The Wilkes report on this event.
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Everyone who comes to the Neelys’ house,
Though they be as small as a mouse,
Must ride the grass-sled down their hill,
It might be wise to first write your will.
We did hear from the Neelys’,
Who’d done a few wheelies.
The oldest person to make it alive-
An 83 year old lady did take the dive.
For an analogy to life, search I did,
In Bible did I look, not long was it hid.
Grab hold of Jesus we must,
And in Him we must trust.
Life’s trials will be steep,
But in Him we will keep.
In sorrows we may weep,
Love for others being so deep.
This is the end of my tale,
Riding down the hill to the dale.
Trusting Jesus that me He will save,
‘Till they lay me cold in the grave.
 
”Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it.” (1 Corinthians 9:24)
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