Welcome to Ten Thousand Islands...

Charlie & I had a wonderful week with friends and family in Everglades City.
Staying on a private island, Pleasure Island, as special guests of Debbie & Marty, Pat's nephew and niece, was a Florida treat...The abundance of nature was a thrill to experience in the Wilderness Reserve...We were blessed....
Thank you Debbie & Marty for your generosity and allowing us this use of your wonderful property...
God Bless You both....AND YOUR BUSINESS!

I get a turn at being 'Capt.' on the Ferguson River...

Sally is not too sure about my 'expertise'....

He who seeks a friend without a FAULT remains without one...

"To be aware of a single shortcoming in oneself
is more useful than to be aware of a thousand in someone else." ~ the Dalai Lama ....web

Building boys is easier than mending men....

This is a great story and link....Feeding Others

http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/03/19/cnnheroes.jorge.munoz/index.html

Randy & Suzanne flew in from P.R. on business and they and Charlie and I had dinner at Fresh Harvest.
Catching up on family news, eating crab legs, oysters and shrimp took three hours.
Needless to say, it was a wonderful time.....well spent.

Daily Word — Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Divine love heals me as it flows from me.
As a child, I learned skills and adopted habits that continue to be of great value to me as an adult. Saying "thank you," I express my appreciation of others.
I know the surest way to make a friend is to be one.
I understand that saying "I'm sorry" and accepting another's apology are acts of love that bless the giver as much as the receiver.
By forgiving, I'm not accepting or excusing the negative behavior of myself or others. I am offering us another chance to do better in our relationship.
I let the love of Christ within me come forward, and I share this blessing with others.
The love within my heart heals me as it flows out to others as words and acts of forgiveness.

"Then came Peter to him, and said, 'Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?'

Jesus saith unto him, 'I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.' "--Matthew 18:21-22 (KJV)

Let's LAUGH Now!

Family Day

Aunt Lynn with another one of her favorite's...

Dylan waits for Nena to get off phone to give him 'shrimp without-tails'....

Matt in his usual spot listening to all the 'silly' talk....

Yep, here is some of the 'crazy' girls...Gen, Britt & Ash

Which one is known as 'hot lips'?

CraZy cousins....who really love each other....good, bad and ugly....

Family time is precious....today was a little more crazy than others as we reminisced about 'remember when'.....some tales seemed outlandish....each persons memories are really from their very own perspective...remember that you'll!

In The Presence of Greatness....

Let me introduce you.....

This is Andrew White better known as

The Vicar of Baghdad.

Canon Andrew spoke to our church, The River, on Sunday and I was spell-bound!

Andrew White is one of a tiny handful of people trusted by virtually every side in the complex Middle East. When political and military solutions fail, Andrew offers a different approach, speaking as a man of faith to men of faith.

Compassionate and shrewd, gifted in human relationships, he has been deeply involved in the rebuilding of Iraq.

Andrew started The Foundation for Relief and Reconciliation in the Middle East (FRRME)

and England presented the Foundation and Andrew with the

2008 Prize for Peace Award....

This is not a 'token' endorsement....Andrew has actually been kidnapped, (ransom paid)

thrown into prison rooms with dismembered body parts, (fresh he said)

lived through loss unmentionable....

I salute you...Andrew White.....

A Great Man of Faith.....and ACTION!

Below: With General David Petraeus in 2007.

On Andrew's left is his right-hand man, Samir...

on the generals right stands Col. Mike Hoyt and beyond him, Peter Maki and another general.

St George's Church in Baghdad with a few of the people and four bodyguards

from Iraqi special forces...

With Pope John Paul II in 1992..

Andrew White receives many summons to the Vatican.

I quote Andrew for picture below:

"In the summer of 2008, six of the young people from St George's

were able to come to Britain with me.

Three of them stayed at my house in Hampshire, and three at the home of some local friends, Robert and Tanya, who have a swimming pool, a tennis court,

a lake and a large collection of vintage cars.

They had a wonderful time.

They travelled around the country - in Oxfordshire they were given lunch by Nina Prentice, the

wife of the current British ambassador to Iraq.

They even spent two days at the House of Lords .

When they returned with me to Baghdad, one of these young people said to me:

'You took us to heaven. Now we are back in hell.'

I told him that one day Iraq will be heaven again. And I believe it will be...one day...

After all, the Garden of Eden was in Mesopotamia....Iraq"...

See the article below in the UK Times online which gives a better summary of the vastness of involvement by this great 'Man of Faith'

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article3978164.ece

Andrew as he spoke to our church on Sunday...
Oh, by the way, Andrew has MS and was declared 'medically unfit' in 1998 to serve in his church in England so....he went to Baghdad....the rest is history!

I would like to quote from Andrew's 'now' words....
"Recently, I spent two days speaking at a small conference for Episcopalian US Army chaplains in Iraq and introduced them to some of their fellow Christians from my St. George church.
At that meeting, one of the chaplains asked what was so special about our church.
Everybody replied with the same answer: love.
We love our Lord and Master, we love each other - and I love my people and they love me.
I never thought I would love my congregation as I do.
We are surrounded by violence and the tools of violence, but when we come to church we come to worship and to love. There is a lot of laughter - sometimes at my expense! - as well as tears.
The fact is that we have the biggest Christian congregation in Iraq.
Currently, it is growing at a rate of a hundred a month and it now numbers 1,800,
including 500 children.
In June 2008, the new bishop of Cyprus and the Gulf, Michael Lewis, visited Iraq.
One of his duties was to open our new medical and dental clinic at our church, St. George.
The kidnappers in Iraq had targeted professionals in particular, and by now over 80% of Baghdad's doctors had either been killed or fled the country.
As a result, it had become very difficult for people to get treatment.
So, we set up a free clinic with funding from the US Army, with three doctors and three dentists - one of them Jewish - all from the neighborhood.
Now, people come to church for the good of their bodies as well as their spirits.
Most of our patients are not even Christian, but it is to the church they come for help
and there is no discrimination." (Quoted words of Canon Andrew White)

Family....the FULLNESS of Life....

Lynn, Cindy and I did a shopping day on Saturday and it was FUN...
Good bargains, lots of laughter and Greek food made our day wonderful!

Then Sunday after church these 'brats' invited me to go to the last day of the Strawberry Festival with them . What a experience!.
Four children in the hot Florida sun, strawberry short cake and winning gold fish just before leaving was what the boys called a 'good time'.....

Food was a must...expensive but necessary...

Joshua always likes the challenge...

Dylan is so happy with his 'Nemo'.....

This poor fish went through a war zone before getting to

Nena's fish bowl....

Now Nemo is 'night-night'....(forever, Dylan broke bag before

getting home and poor fish had to be re-bagged....guess he was

traumatized too much by a 2 yr. old...a replacement is secretly

in the process)

Dylan and 'Lil Turkey' in Race Car ride

Britt and her two sons with their two 'winning goldfish...''

Our Missionary Son, Chuck, and his wife, Terry, are doing what they have prepared to do for a number of years now.

Often 'the wife of a missionary' is referred to as 'the wife' when in actuality she is a much needed and valued part of God's work on her own.

Terry is certainly that kind of Missionary.

She was that wherever they have lived and raised their family in the states before going off to Kenya, Africa.

For you see Terry has always had a heart of gold for children and the elderly.

Being in Kenya may be a change of geography but what she is now doing....she has always done!

In addition, she is 'the wind beneath his wings' that being her husband, Chuck.

Just ask him. He will be the first to tell you that he and Terry make a 'package deal' in their life and work for the Lord...

So today, I choose TERRY ANN FERNANDEZ to salute as being our family 'hero'...

God Bless you dear one....your craZy family loves you and are soooooo proud of you...

(See pictures below of Terry in action...with fisherman's children, with children of the village and working during the last few weeks with all the medical team of McMed in Turkana)

A picture tells a thousand words....Terry is LOVE in action!

The Neutral Gator Standard....

Many of you family and friends know our nephew Randy, Suzanne & Jacob Cravey.
Did you know that they have a web site now that you Gator fans should check out!
This site will tell you how you can participate in offsetting carbon in your own community as has been done to a great extent in the Gator's home town of Gainesville, Florida.
Neutral Gator is working in partnership with the University of Florida toward a more healthy and 'less wasteful' community-conscious life.
Our family and friends who helped plant '1,000 trees ' at Dockie & Ann's was a step toward that environmental goal.
I quote below from Neutral Gators Newsletter....February 2009
THE CHAMPS ARE NEUTRAL
"Neutral Gator led the 2008 BCS Nation Champion Florida Gators to hosting the first ever carbon neutral football season.
By distributing more than 63,000 compact fluorescent bulbs at a savings of over $3.2 million to the Gainesville community, and by partnering with the Arthur R. Marshall Foundation to plant hundreds of trees in the Everglades, Neutral Gator offset more than 20,000 tons of carbon dioxide last season..."

Check out their site, send them an e-mail, ask them to add your e-mail address to their newsletter list, encourage and donate to this worth-while, not-for-profit organization .
Do your part in making 'Planet Earth' a cleaner and healthier....Neutral Gator....place to live....
Randy, Suzann & Jacob, you make us proud!
Go To:
http://www.neutralgator.org/