Is your Heart Filled?

"My Heart Is Filled with Thankfulness"
Words and Music by Keith Getty & Stuart Townend
Copyright © 2003 Thankyou Music

My heart is filled with thankfulness
To Him who bore my pain;
Who plumbed the depths of my disgrace
And gave me life again;
Who crushed my curse of sinfulness
And clothed me in His light
And wrote His law of righteousness
With pow'r upon my heart.

My heart is filled with thankfulness
To Him who walks beside;
Who floods my weaknesses with strength
And causes fears to fly;
Whose ev'ry promise is enough
For ev'ry step I take,
Sustaining me with arms of love
And crowning me with grace.

My heart is filled with thankfulness
To him who reigns above,
Whose wisdom is my perfect peace,
Whose ev'ry thought is love.
For ev'ry day I have on earth
Is given by the King;
So I will give my life, my all,
To love and follow him.

I wanted to highlight some phrases in this song, but found that I would have to highlight just about every word, so I would encourage you to read it again.

I posted recently about being "as a child", and this is a great place to be. On our tax returns we state whether we have dependents, or maybe we are dependents, in the IRS' eyes, but today I am realizing that we are all SOOO dependent on Him.
We are told to pray w/o ceasing, and I think this is impossible if we think we can do things on our own, w/o God's help.

I have realized, the last few days, that is it a joy to pray throughout the day because when I know that I need God's help for every decision, that I need His wisdom and direction to make the right choices, it takes the burden off of me to "get it right" and I can trust Him, who knows all things, to guide me to the right place.

We need to pray for those around us who have not had their eyes opened to the truth of who Jesus is. Many feel they can make it on their own and that Jesus would cramp their style, but Jesus doesn't cramp our style, He takes the burden from us so we can live unencumbered.

1 Chron. 16:8 O give thanks unto Jehovah, call upon his name; Make known his doings among the peoples.

9 Sing unto him, sing praises unto him; Talk ye of all his marvelous works.

10 Glory ye in his holy name; Let the heart of them rejoice that seek Jehovah.

11 Seek ye Jehovah and his strength; Seek his face evermore.

12 Remember his marvelous works that he hath done, His wonders, and the judgments of his mouth,

24 Declare his glory among the nations, His marvelous works among all the peoples.

25 For great is Jehovah, and greatly to be praised: He also is to be feared above all gods.

26 For all the gods of the peoples are idols: But Jehovah made the heavens.

27 Honor and majesty are before him: Strength and gladness are in his place.

28 Ascribe unto Jehovah, ye kindreds of the peoples, Ascribe unto Jehovah glory and strength;

29 Ascribe unto Jehovah the glory due unto his name: Bring an offering, and come before him: Worship Jehovah in holy array.

30 Tremble before him, all the earth: The world also is established that it cannot be moved.

31 Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice; And let them say among the nations, Jehovah reigneth.

32 Let the sea roar, and the fullness thereof; Let the field exult, and all that is therein;

33 Then shall the trees of the wood sing for joy before Jehovah; For he cometh to judge the earth.

34 O give thanks unto Jehovah; for he is good; For his loving kindness endureth for ever.

35 And say ye, Save us, O God of our salvation, And gather us together and deliver us from the nations, To give thanks unto thy holy name, And to triumph in thy praise.

36 Blessed be Jehovah, the God of Israel, From everlasting even to everlasting. And all the people said, Amen, and praised Jehovah.

When we are dwelling in the "land of thanksgiving" it is difficult to complain. We have much to be thankful for, so let's be thankful.

Be Still and Know that He is God

Ps. 46:1God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble.
2Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way,
though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea,
3though its waters roar and foam,
though the mountains tremble at its swelling.

4There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy habitation of the Most High.
5 God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved;
God will help her when morning dawns.
6 The nations rage, the kingdoms totter;
he utters his voice, the earth melts.
7 The LORD of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.

8 Come, behold the works of the LORD,
how he has brought desolations on the earth.
9 He makes wars cease to the end of the earth;
he breaks the bow and shatters the spear;
he burns the chariots with fire.
10 "Be still, and know that I am God.
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth!"
11 The LORD of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.

The title of this post has been said and sung so many times, but until you're right in the middle of the fray and you know that there is no possible way that you can get through it on your own, it doesn't have quite the meaning.
God is showing me, even right now, what He meant by "unless you become as a child". A child doesn't worry about too much of anything and the reason for that is because they know that their dad will take care of them. I am to not worry about what is going on all around me, but I am to look only to Jesus. If we take our eyes off of Jesus and start to look at the waves, then we start to sink. BUT when we have faith, as a child, and know that our Heavenly Father is carrying us, then we will walk right into His arms.

Our God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Our shelter from the stormy blast,
And our eternal home.

Under the shadow of Thy throne
Thy saints have dwelt secure;
Sufficient is Thine arm alone,
And our defense is sure.

Before the hills in order stood,
Or earth received her frame,
From everlasting Thou art God,
To endless years the same.

A thousand ages in Thy sight
Are like an evening gone;
Short as the watch that ends the night
Before the rising sun.

Our God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Be Thou our guard while troubles last,
And our eternal home.

Please pray;
For me that I would have faith to trust the One who has been so faithful to me, every minute of the day.
That God would continue His blessing on the families of Priceless Granite.
That I would have wisdom to know what to do and know when to not do anything but wait.

My hope is You Oh God.

We DO live in very uncertain times

Psalm 121

1I lift up my eyes to the hills.
From where does my help come?
2 My help comes from the LORD,
who made heaven and earth.

3He will not let your foot be moved;
he who keeps you will not slumber.
4Behold, he who keeps Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.

5The LORD is your keeper;
the LORD is your shade on your right hand.
6 The sun shall not strike you by day,
nor the moon by night.

7The LORD will keep you from all evil;
he will keep your life.
8The LORD will keep
your going out and your coming in
from this time forth and forevermore.

There are times when we need help carrying some of the load that we are asked to carry, and yesterday morning was one of those times for me. Most of you, as a parent, teacher, leader or maybe just a friend, know the feeling; like you are carrying the whole world, but it may be just a little more than an extra brick in your back pack.

I normally am not reading through the Psalms, but through Matthew, so yesterday I decided to go to one of my favorites; Psalm 121. What an encouragement to know that we only have to look the the Father and He is our Help in time of need. It grieves my heart that I often wait until I'm seemingly desperately "overloaded" until I ask for help, because He wants to carry our burdens all the time.

He who is the Creator and Sustainer of the entire universe is MY Helper.
He who does not slumber nor sleep will keep MY foot from being moved.
He who is the keeper of the sun and the moon is also MY Keeper.
He who is eternal will keep me from evil and will keep MY life.

There are so many songs about His care for us and that must be because as humans we quickly forget that He is our Everything, and we don't need to be concerned about what we will eat of drink or what we will wear, because our Heavenly Father cares for the birds of the air and they aren't concerned where their meal will come from in a few hours.


This is a song by the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir that I like and it says a lot to this issues. The title is "So you would Know".

How many times must I prove how much, I love you,
how many ways, must my love for you I show,
how many times, must I rescue you from trouble,
so you would know, just how much I love you

How many days, must I be a fence all around you
and how many nights, must I wipe your tears away,
and how many storms, must I bring you safely through,
so you would know, just how much I love you

Oh didn't I
Wake you up this morning, you were closed in your right mind
When you woke up on a problem didn't I step right in on time
When you were weak along life's journey my angels carried you
So you would know just how much I love you

Oh didn't I,
Put food on your table
Show up when your bills were due
When the pain was racking your body didn't I send healing down to you
When you were lost in sin and sorrow I died to set you free
So you would know just how much I love you

So you would know, so you would know how much
So you would know just how much I love you

Thankfully we are not asked to carry any of these burdens on our own and we certainly aren't asked to carry them all at once, because Jesus will carry them all for us, but only if we let Him.
He is not too busy or tired to carry them, He is eagerly waiting to have us/me give Him the load.

Thanks be to God for His unspeakable gift.
His yoke is easy and His burden is light.
Cast all your cares upon Him, for He cares for you.
Speak to each other in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord.

When we focus on the waves we quickly start to fear,
When we focus on the Savior the waves will disappear.

Back to School

Matt. 6:25 "Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

"Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

I know this probably seems like a strange title, for this time of year, but it seems as if God has enrolled me into His school of faith building again.

The elections are over, the economy is strange, the housing industry is weak at best and we have a business we're trying to operate right in the middle of all these conditions.

I am not normally too much of a "worrier", though if I look at what is going on around us, there is certainly room for concern. BUT the really good thing is that God is the creator and sustainer of everything. He can and will orchestrate His plan for His people, in bad and good times, and there is nothing that can stop Him.

I heard someone say a long time ago something like, "We are to work like everything depends on us, and pray like everything depends on God".

God truly is good.

The Strength of the Lord, Larnelle Harris.

Sometimes life seems like words and music
That can't quite become a song
So we cry and sigh then we try again
And wonder what could be wrong
But when we turn to the Lord at the end of ourselves
Like we've done a time or two before
We find His truth is the same as it's always been
We never will need more

It's not in trying but in trusting
It's not in running but in resting
Not in wondering but in praying
That we find the strength of the Lord

He's all we need for our every need
We never need be alone
Still He'll let us go if we choose to
To live life on our own
Then the only good that will ever be said
Of the pains we find ourselves in
They are places to gain the wisdom to say
I'll never leave Him again

It's not in trying but in trusting
It's not in running but in resting
Not in wondering but in praying
That we find the strength of the Lord

It's not in trying but in trusting
It's not in running but in resting
Not in wondering but in praying
That we find the strength of the Lord

It's not in wondering but in praying
That we find the strength of the Lord.


I am acutely aware that if God can stop and start Grant's heart "He is more than able to accomplish what concerns me today".
Pray that we all would trust God's plan for us; personally, spiritually and economically.
Pray for the leaders you know that they might have wisdom and discernment when making decisions that effect many families.
Pray that we would all learn what it is that our Heavenly Father wants us to learn in His time.
Please pray for me personally that I might truly trust what I have just posted.

Without God, as our Hope, our hope is in vain.
Without God we can have no faith to trust.
"I believe; help my unbelief!" Mark 9:24

Whatever God Ordains is Right

As I sit and watch the electoral votes come in, and the number for Obama is 297, I am reminded that God is in control of everything, even electoral votes.
We have voted for the candidates we wanted to see in office, we have done our part to change history, and now we are to support the people God has allowed to be in authority over us.
We need to pray for their wisdom in decisions that have repercussions for the entire world, as well as here at home. Just as God can stop and start hearts, create the entire universe with His word, and change our hearts, He can direct rulers to work His plan.
Isn't it good to know that He is in ultimate control of everything, and He has never failed His loved ones.
Our hope is in The Great Hope, The Ultimate Instrument of change and The True Messiah.

ITALIAN TRAVEL

We stayed up and talked way too late on Friday night before we left, so both Teresa and I only got a couple of hours sleep.
Except for getting up really early, 3:15, to go to the airport everything was fine.
Airports and airplanes are really amazing, if you try to think back 50 years. We leave Seattle on Saturday morning, our time, and arrive in Italy on Sunday morning their time, with 6-7000 miles in between. Travel really is work, compared to the dreaminess of it, but compared to what it could be, it’s easy work.

We arrived in Milan and rented the car and off we go; south and east to a region, little known to Americans, as Le Marche, just east of Tuscany.

A month of so ago I googled “Agri-tourism Italy” and came upon a site for an Italian cooking class and was intrigued. I started to read the blog associated with it and thought this would be fun. It’s in Le Marche, that’s why we’re here and way up in the boonies. We have a GPS in the car and they gave us coordinates to get here, and bamm, we drove right to it.



We were greeted by our hosts Jason and Ashley. This is pretty crazy, but God kind of works these things out. I booked the date here and then started to communicate with them more and found out that they are from the northwest and more specifically, Ashely’s grand parents lived in Marysville right before they moved out to Camano Island. So when we talk about Granite Falls, they know exactly where we are talking about.

Jason is a chef from San Fran and New York. He took culinary arts classes in French pastry and he is very low key, at least in this setting, which begs towards low key, as there is no one around us. Ashley is very energetic and gregarious, with a back ground in hospitality and drama. Both a very genuine, sweet, late 20’s entrepreneurs. They have left the language and culture they know to move to another continent to pursue a dream and it does appear they are living the dream. If your marriage isn’t good, you probably don’t want to try this.

Dinner was delicious. I can’t remember everything we had, but I’ll list a few.
Of course you can’t start w/o anti-pasta of thin sliced meats and cheese.
The stuffed egg plant was truly amazing.
Sautéed greens with a little lemon juice.
Green beans and cheery tomatoes sautéed with garlic, yum.
A very small tortellini, with beef broth soup, topped with Parm.
Seconda was breaded veal, sautéed with chopped parsley.
And for dessert a local pear, with pear butter, tart.
We ate way too much and it was all fabulous.

Off to bed because we have a local market to go to tomorrow.

I slept really well. When I got up in the middle of the night it was so dark that I couldn’t even see my hand right in front of my face. There are no street lights here. The bed was really warm, because the season has just changed and it is pretty cool in the room, but that makes for good sleeping.

Day 2.
Teresa is still sleeping, so I got up and walked around outside to take some early morning pictures. It’s pretty cold and a little dewy. No noises except for some locals doing something up in the woods with a single piece of machinery.
What a great place to slow down, relax and do as the Italians do.

We went on a little drive this morning, through some small towns out in the hills around here. We tried to go to the local market, that was supposed to be on Mondays, but it was yesterday, so we just drove and stopped and then drove and stopped. We had a couple of pastries at a bakery and some yogurt, which is really good, but much runnier that American style.

Pretty much everything was closed. We stopped at a bicycle shop, but it was closed as well. We did find a hardware store open, so in true form, Teresa bought some gloves and a spade to work on the herb garden here. She saw it needed some TLC, so of course she is the girl to do it.


We came back to the house and Teresa, in true "I want to bless you with taking weeding" form, started to weed the small circular herb garden and around some of the roses close to the house and Jason and Ashley came home. We had already had a snack so they ate some pizza type bread and we decided to go back into the bigger city Urbino with Ashley. Jason needed to stay around here to look for a part to repair the downstairs water. He is pretty patient with the system here, which is, “I’ll be there in a few hours” and they really don’t arrive for days.

The drive to Urbino is along the ridge of hilltops and the views are beautiful. The rolling hills are spotted with fields that either have hay left in them, or have been freshly disked up, so the contrast is really stunning.



Urbino is an old, large and well maintained castle fort. It is quite beautiful as well with the round tower of bricks and stone set into the walls which are straight and high. The steeple from the cathedral is the highest, pointing towards Heaven.

The town itself is relatively busy, as there is a university there. Small shops line the street level with 2, 3 and 4 levels of houses above. Laundry hangs from the windows as daily life goes on above and around us; we’re here to take it all in.
We had Gelati for the first time this trip. It’s so good. I had dark chocolate with frutti di bosco, which is fruit of the woods. It’s like blackberries of all kinds in yogurt.

After an afternoon of exploring we joined Jason for dinner in Piobbico, a small town very close to their home.

I did notice during our dinner conversation that Jason was talking about something in the States and he started to say, “Back at home”, but said “In the States”. They are now home in Italy. What a great story they will have for their kids and grandkids.
During the day I also heard Teresa and Ashley talking about Ashley’s love of life itself. She is a breath of fresh air. She is pretty dramatic, but in a refreshing sort of way. She LOVES everything, but I think she actually does. If you’re not coming here to relax, slow down and enjoy life, you should consider another destination. If you are, you probably can’t find a more suited host/guide.
We have them to ourselves, these 2 days, and it’s so nice. Other guests are arriving tomorrow, when we leave, and so they will have 8-12 at a time for almost the remainder of Oct. This is great for their business and bank acct. as the tourist season is almost finished. Their ability to generate revenue is almost done for 3-4 months; that would be scary for me, but they seem to embrace all the idiosyncrasies of Italy, whether good or not so good.

Day 3
We’re going to explore a meat and cheese store today, make Tiramisu and go back to Urbino tonight for dinner. It should be a fun last day here.

Jason and I went to Piobbico this morning to get the ingredients for the Tiramisu and on the way home we stopped at a bicycle shop and I was able to purchase a riding jersey. We came home and Teresa was out “hunting” in the woods for treasures. The hike was steep and you could see the horse’s tracks that have labored up the clay trail and the slide marks of those same horses returning. The view from the top was really nice, and it’s so peaceful here.

We came back to the house and started on the Tiramisu. It’s such and easy recipe and Jason is a good teacher/coach. We laughed and made our dessert for when we came home from the day goofing off around town.


We then had to wait for a guy to come by the house, so I laid down in a recliner by the pool and the breeze and the sun felt so good. The season is finished for the pool tomorrow, so one last tourist by her and she’s done for the year.

Then it was off to explore to little towns and to pick up some more treasures of our trip.

First we went to Jason and Ashley’s landlord’s business, which happens to be a meat and cheese store. It seems Dominique owns half of Italy, or at least half of the surrounding area here and everyone comes by the shop and visits and has a little glass of wine, some cheese and tells a story and off they go.

His sons are loading up their trucks to go out and sell to the local restaurants in their small towns and villages and Dominique laughs and talked with us while they are steam cleaning the inside of their trucks. They are really clean.

We purchased a couple of loafs of cheese, some jars of sun dried tomatoes and pickled onions and a pigs cheek. It supposed to be really, really good, so with preparation procedure in hand we’ll go back home and try it out. They eat lots of pork here.

We traveled back to Urbino and walked around, had some Gelati and then went for dinner. That’s right, dessert BEFORE dinner.


We ate at an upper room, off the street level, restaurant. It happened to be where Jason and Ashley had come for some inside information before they moved here. They had talked to the owner about the actual running of a restaurant in Italy so they would be more prepared. They had only talked with the guy one time, about a year and a half ago, and he remembered them and all the details of the conversation. They were impressed.

To finish the day we returned home and had Tiramisu. I don’t really like Tiramisu that much, as I always think it is too “boozy”/coffee flavored. I changed my mind. This recipe is really good and so easy to make.

Day 4
Today we say “good bye” to the Ca’Camore” which means the community oven. All the people of the community would bring their bread to bake in the only wood fired oven.
We left and headed north along the Adriatic coast.

We had to stop and Teresa and I walked along the beach and Teresa searched for shells and trinkets. Of course Teresa had to take off her flip flops and get her feet wet. You can see by all the buildings on the beach that in high season this beach is crazy busy.

Then we got on the Autostrata and headed north to Rovereto, north of Verona. We arrived a the hotel and got checked in. It’s a nice place just off the main drag. Since it’s so far from a big city it’s pretty reasonably priced and the town is nice and quiet. We had pizza and gelati for dinner and went to sleep.

Day 4
Off to the show.
We went to the factory and visited and checked out the new materials coming in. There are some crazy onyx and nice new marbles. It’s always nice to see what’s happening in the heart of the company and the Italian side is amazingly clean, for a business this size.


Then we took the shuttle bus to the fair and walked around to see the vendors from Brazil and look to see if they have anything we haven’t seen, but most of them are focused on America and the market at home had been tough on them.

The fair has 12 halls which are at least 100k s/f each and then there are outside vendors.

We went back to the factory and then headed back to the hotel to change clothes to have dinner with a few people we know and a bunch of people we don’t.
We saw some old friends and made friends with some others we have just met. It’s such a nice business to be in, because we have something in common; stone.

The dinner is amazing; one of our yearly highlights for sure. The family is so gracious and kind to all of us and I love that this dinner is done with incredible excellence, from first course through #7 and onto dessert, with fireworks, like a small city in America on the 4th of July.

We stayed up way too late for our liking, but this is a great reason to stay up late. Off to bed.

Day 5
We traveled a rainy road into Affi to the factory to look at more stones and to visit with Niko for a bit. The factory was crammed with people and Niko was gracious as ever, trying to get time with me, when there are so many others that need to be helped. We decided to come back later and go into Verona to see what was going on there.

The weather was perfect for walking around and seeing the sites. There was a rock concert going on in the evening at the coliseum, which seems strange; world famous opera and rock concerts.

We tried to get back to the factory to see Niko, but when we left the traffic was really bad coming out of town and equally as bad coming off the freeway, so we plan to go back on Monday afternoon, when all the craziness stops.

We came back to the hotel and packed up to leave tomorrow morning. We tried to pack in such a way that we don’t have to unpack everything from here on out. It should be interesting to see if we succeeded.

Day 6
Off to Venice to explore.
The morning in Rovereto was clear and beautiful. The first dusting of snow on the mountain caps, but today was the only day we could actually see the tops, as it has been pretty cloudy in the mornings. We drove south toward Verona and then east toward Venice. The weather called for rain in Venice until noon and as we drove it was nice, but we could see we were going into the rain clouds. About the time we got to Venice it was raining, but in an hour or so the clouds burned off and it was a perfect weather day in Venice. We found an antique show along the main road in own, so we stopped and got some stuff that we didn’t need, but then again, what do we really need?

We did exactly what tourists are supposed to do; ate way too much, I bought too much stuff and just walked around and took pictures and looked; again, a perfect day for it. We came back to the hotel area and there was a sort of carnival atmosphere, so we started to explore what was going on and found a traveling food and trinket show going on. We people watched, ate too much again and enjoyed the evening.



Tomorrow we drive south to Florence and Siena. The weather is supposed to be nice again, so hopefully we’ll get to take some more pictures.

Day 7.
We woke up to perfect sunshine and not a cloud in the sky. We had breakfast and checked out and we were on our way south through Florence to a little town called Tavarnelle, just south of Florence, but slightly north of Siena.

The drive was uneventful, as much as driving through the heart of Italy can be, but no issues. The scenery is great, but widely diverse; from fields, like central California, to hills covered with trees, vineyards with castle-like houses, and olds villas everywhere. The weather changed as we drove south and it was just misting when we arrived here.


We checked into the hotel and then went to San Grigiagna. This town has a medieval castle; wall, turret and the works. We walked around and there were musicians playing along the walls and in the piazzas. We listened to a harpist playing right on the edge of the wall, with the Tuscan hillside right behind him. This reminded me of what Saul must have been thinking when he was having David play for him. Then we walked some more and ate more gelati. We came into a piazza and this amazing music, which sounded like an orchestra playing, came flooding through the hallways leading into it. I didn’t initially realize it was someone playing, but there was a flautist, with a background cd, and we listened to him for a while.

We then went back to the hotel and called on the hot air ballooning schedule for tomorrow and then went to dinner, by recommendation of the hotel clerk.

Dinner was great, the waitress spoke great English and almost the entire restaurant was filled with English speakers.

We came back again to the hotel and I was able to log on to the internet for the first time this trip. It’s nice to catch up on the pile of emails I would have had if I didn’t read some of them today.
Tomorrow is the balloon ride. We are hoping for good weather so we can go.

Day 8
I woke up and called into the pilot for the balloon and heard the news that there was a possibility of rain/wind, so no ballooning today. Well, we were tired so we went back to sleep for a little while, as the call had to be earlier than sunrise.

We woke up, ate breakfast and got on the road to Florence, on a quest for ties and scarves. I was literally just standing still and something popped in my back and I was in pretty severe pain. I laid down in a shop and tried to stretch it out, but couldn’t get it out.

We did find a bunch of ties and some scarves as well, and I also found a nice little shop so I purchased some wine and an antique bottle of Balsamic vinegar. It’s amazing.


We went from there back to the factory, about 2 hours drive, and looked at the material we had selected and selected a few more choice bundles.

We then drove over the hill to Bardolino, on Lake Garda, and had dinner overlooking the lake watching the sun go down. There were some swans on the walkway that were eating everything the people would feed them, they were gigantic.


We then proceeded to get lost going to the motel and it took us an extra 2 hours to find it before we could check in. We had to unpack all the bags and repackage them to be able to take them all on the plain. We got a lot of stuff.
Off to bed for the flight tomorrow home.

So that is the trip to Italy in a nut shell. Teresa is great to let me drag her all over the place. We did have a nice time, though since the US market was crashing while we were away it was a drag listening to the TV give us a blow by blow ever day.

God knows what is to come and in arriving back to work I have to remember He is on control of all those things.

This is NOT Splenda

Yesterday was Kimmy's BD and Friday was Teresa's. Kind of a crazy weekend, but good crazy.For Kimmy's BD we, as a family, went to Wally's memorial service.

What a God honoring service it was. The Good News of Jesus Christ was shared numerous times and remembering Wally's life was very sweet.

The reason I titled this post, "Not Splenda", is because Wally was not artificially sweet, but he was the real thing. He was pure sugar, and that was evident by those who got up and talked. Wally truly loved people and enjoyed the process that God had him in.

When he found out he had cancer, he called his pastor and told him the news and said something to the effect of, If this is what God has for me, then I'm ok with that, I'd like to be healed, but God is making the calls and I'm good with that. What a testament to ETPing.

I will miss Wally. He mixed his business and the rest of his life well. He was generous, but a good steward as well. He accomplished much in his business, yet accomplished much in his relationships. He was both serious and relaxed. He was smart, yet never let you know that he thought he was.

Pray for Sheri and the family, as today will be very hard. The rest of our lives go on, almost business as usual, but there is a "Jesus shaped" hole left in the Carruthers house, and it will be very noticeable for them in all the little things that don't get said and done.

Something I don't do very well is treasure every moment, and so my encouragement to you, and me, is to treasure the little things we have right in front of us, right now.

God is Good
In Everything
God is Good