New Release by Tonya Kappes! A Charming Deception (#13 Magical Cures Mystery)

Today! July 30 release date!

What a charming story! I kind of jumped into this series in the middle - starting with book 13 - but I didn't have any trouble following the characters or the community. There is enough background throughout the story to help you fit right in like you've been there all along. The characters are fun and I enjoyed the back and forth between them.

You can pick it up at Amazon on July 30th!

We are Called to Overcome - Pastor Paul Page August 2020

It’s not just that we CAN overcome, but that we are CALLED to overcome.

1 John 5:4-5 King James Version (KJV) ⁴ For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. ⁵ Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?

John is telling us as Christians that we can overcome.

As a child King David overcame a lion and a bear. As a teen, a giant called Goliath. He defeated an army of Philistines and was considered a mighty warrior. Then he lost his position, and spent years running from King Saul and hiding in caves, afraid for his life. Can you imagine how that would feel after so many victories? Did he wonder “God, where are you?” Have you ever felt like that? We all have.

John tells us we can overcome. It’s a choice we make. We have to overcome the world.

The world is shiny. It’s pretty. It attracts us, draws us in. It’s loud, and it looks easy.

1 John 2:15-16 ¹⁵ Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. ¹⁶ For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

We’re not supposed to love the world. It’s possible for any of us to sin and all of us do. It’s possible for any of us to walk away. The world is full of shiny things. We have to decide to be overcomers. Yes, we as Christians can overcome the bright shiny things of the world.

There are some things that can help us do that.

We need to have someone to be accountable to, someone who will call us out on our sin.

We need to acknowledge that there is a problem – sin, Satan, temptation…

1Peter 5:8 ⁸ Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:

Satan’s specialty, what he does, is he knows your weakness. That’s where he aims his arrows, toward the chinks in your armor.

If you’re a soldier and you aren’t wearing your armor it can be very dangerous. There was a man in Vietnam who was there training soldiers. He was making them wear inch thick steel breastplates. There was a small soldier, who could hardly carry it because the weight was so great for him. One day they were walking through the jungle, and he was shot, right in the chest. He went down, but after awhile he was able to get back up, and he had a big dent, but he was alive because he was wearing that armor.

We’ve seen the world destroy churches, pastors, families, people. Satan tries to destroy our witness, distort our desires, and confuse our value system. If we are reading the world of God and comparing it to the world around us, we see a big difference. I was raised with different values. It was okay to lie, cheat, steal, hurt other people, whatever you needed to do to look out for yourself. When I accepted Christ as my Savior the Holy Spirit changed me, changed my values, and my life became different. The world needs to see us be different.

                                                                     Paul Brow, Haven of Rest

Sunday, July 26, 2020

Sunday, July 19, 2020 Prayer

Dirty Dancing

I get emotional when I watch this movie. Sure, it's a heartwarming love story with challenges to overcome and hard times that make characters grow, but it's also the memories. I was 12 when this film was originally released. I never saw it in theaters. Had my best friend growing up not had a gigantic crush on Patrick Swayze I probably wouldn't have seen it on VHS (yes, I am THAT old). It became one of my favorite all time movies, not only for the movie itself, but for the memories of watching it with friends, and watching it alone and thinking of friends. And now my girls love it too. 

Our local cinema (and many others across the country) is just reopening, and in the midst of all the new regulations and encouraging people to come, they are bringing back movies from yesteryear (okay, I just love that word and had to work it in somewhere, though it makes me think of the 1800's, not 1980 something). Reduced prices, no fees for pre-purchasing online tickets, concession specials, a free welcome back ticket, etc. They have a "Clean Freak Squad" of employees whose entire job is to clean up after people. There was a young lady stationed at the soda machines to wipe them between customers, they were wiping handrails and seats in between shows, and sanitizing restrooms (which also had every other stall closed off, which I hadn't seen anywhere else).  They are doing the best they can to make people feel comfortable coming back to the movies and following the guidelines laid out for them.

Anyway, back to the movie...and that's what their reopening theme is, Back to the Movies (with the Back to the Future design).  Right now, and for the foreseeable future, they are showing a lot of movies that were popular a few years ago. Our current offerings include: Dirty Dancing, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Grease, Wizard of Oz, Jurassic Park, Zootopia, The Avengers, The Goonies, and Raiders of the Lost Ark. And yes, I very much want to see The Goonies in the theater as well.

I do love the fact that at the beginning of the movie we learned a little about the history and the making of the movie itself. Eleanor Bergstein wrote about her own life and based the script on some of her experiences. She specifically titled it Dirty Dancing so that none of the "dirty dancing" scenes could be cut, as in another movie she had previously choreographed. There's a whole page of trivia on the IMDB site, as well as information about the entire movie if you want to know more.

I owned this soundtrack on cassette, on CD, and now it's in my Spotify library. And still, until we were watching it in the theater with the little "movie history" lesson before, I had no idea Patrick Swayze co-wrote and sang the song "She's Like the Wind". Now when I listen to it I can hear his speech patterns in some of the letter and word pronunciations. 

And there's one more great thing about social distancing...I could sing along with every single song and say the lines right along with the actors, and there wasn't anyone sitting next to me to bother!

This was a fun family experience, and I have to thank my husband for suffering through the uncomfortableness of being one of the only two guys in the theater to spend time with his girls :).

Then we all went out to dinner together at Old Chicago :).

Central Wyoming Machine Gun And Cannon Shoot 2020

This was a lot of fun. Paul and I went with our friend Cliff and his three youngest kids while his oldest and our two were hanging out together.

We had some mechanical difficulties on the way, but one radiator cap, one radiator hose, and several gallons of coolant later, we were on the road again :).

When we got there they were just finishing up the lunch break, and we were just in time for the afternoon firing session. We all managed to forget our ear protection, but thankfully they were absolutely willing to provide that.

The team in charge of this event really did a great job in organizing. There were camping spots, food vendors, porta potties, and other necessities, and it was SAFE.  They were absolutely vigilant about the firing line and safety, keeping people behind the firing line and making sure the area was clear before allowing anyone to even shoulder a weapon. There were fire fighters and a brush truck right there on site so that if anything caught fire (and it did once), it could be extinguished immediately.

There were  several vendors there renting various types of guns with ammunition and there were lots of different targets, including barrels, tires, dynamite, and model airplanes that would occasionally go flying across the field until they were downed by an accurate (or lucky) shot.

There were some really neat guns there, including cannons, though those were a bit out of our price range ($125 for one shot). 

Paul, Cliff, and I all shot the SAW, and Paul also shot the BAR.

I'm putting a little background about each of these guns and then I have photos and videos of us actually shooting them. 

This SAW was set on a tripod at shoulder level, which is really not how it would normally be carried in the military. It is a heavy gun, and the gunner who has to carry it has a lot to pack.

 Military.com The M249 Squad Automatic Weapon, or SAW, is an individually portable, gas operated, magazine or disintegrating metallic link-belt fed, light machine gun with fixed headspace and quick change barrel feature. The M249 engages point targets out to 800 meters, firing the improved NATO standard 5.56mm cartridge. The SAW forms the basis of firepower for the fire team. The gunner has the option of using 30-round M16 magazines or linked ammunition from pre-loaded 200-round plastic magazines.

BAR:  I watched three full grown men (two who were rather large) shoot this before Paul, and it knocked them back a step or two.

From the Encyclopedia Britannica site: Browning automatic rifle (BAR), automatic rifle produced in the United States starting in 1918 and widely used in other countries as a light machine gun. The BAR is a gas-operated rifle invented by John M. Browning (1855–1926), an American gun designer. It has been chambered for various ammunition, but most frequently for .30-06 Springfield. About 47 inches (120 cm) long, it has a 20-round magazine and weighs 19.4 pounds (8.8 kg). It can fire up to 650 rounds per minute but can also fire single shots or bursts of two or three to increase accuracy. It can be fired from the shoulder or mounted on a bipod.

If you have any interest in guns in general, in the history of shooting or firearms, in seeing things go boom, or wanting to shoot firearms you might never have another opportunity to handle, you should check out next year's event.

Sunday, July 12, 2020 Prayer

Wednesday, July 8, 2020 - Ephesians Chapter 1, Part 1 (verses 1-10)

Skyline Drive, Cañon City, CO - June 2020

I forgot to take a photo of the entrance, which is pretty cool, so I did an internet search and used one from another blog. The photo does link to the original posting, because I didn't want to take credit for someone else's work. The rest of the photos and videos are mine, except for one older photo which links to an article discussing the history of Skyline Drive.

                                     This photo is from a blog titled Eas-On Down the Road.

Skyline Drive is listed on Colorado's Historic Scenic Byways. I've linked to that site in case you're interested in any more scenic Colorado drives. That site didn't really give any information about Skyline Drive itself, so I dug a little deeper. I found more information at a website called Legends of America.

The entire article is fascinating and definitely informative. It was built in the early 1900's by inmates at the Territorial Prison and a newspaper contest was held to name it. They have fascinating photos of the early Skyline Drive, and I'm going to post one with a link to the originating site so you can read the whole story and see the photos for yourself.

                                 Tally Ho Tour Company on Skyline Drive, Canon City, Colorado.

We enjoyed our tour of Skyline Drive, though the drive itself is a little hair-raising! It's almost 3 miles of single lane, one way traffic that goes up over the ridge and right down into a Cañon City Neighborhood. One of our daughters elected to skip the trip, riding back with my folks, who were not going over Skyline. We took photos and video along the route, stopping at the top to take panoramic photos and group photos with our youngest daughter and niece.