Remember a post from last fall about my attendance at an 8th Grade English class at East Central High School near Sandstone, Minnesota?  Well, today I got a thank you card from each of the students and their teacher.  Made my day!!!  If I have wanted to be anything in other people’s lives it has been to be an encouragement.  Through their attention that day and their notes I just received; they are an encouragement to me.  Thank you Ms. Lourey and your class of fine and creative students!

What time is it? What will 2019 bring?  I trust in God.  I trust His timing.  May I be found faithful in my love.  May God’s light shine.  May the life He gives be lived abundantly.  May God’s love be received and returned to Him.

May you know God’s light and life and love.

Jesus in the reason for the season, as others have said.  His birth recorded in Luke 2:1-20 indicates Jesus’ birth happened at a specific time in a specific place to a specific woman.  We don’t know why God chose that specific time for Messiah to be born.  I believe it was in God’s perfect timing.  While people go about their routines and live life, God is doing things in time that we might or might not know about.  What is God doing in our time?

The pictures above are two sanctuaries where congregations meet to worship Jesus.  May we all know Him and worship Him today and everyday.

“…for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”  Luke 2:11

It was an honor to attend the Wreaths Across America event Saturday, December 15, 2018, at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.  Our granddaughters are members of Ameican Heritage Girls and they were among many others who raised money to buy wreaths to place on soldiers graves.  The ceremony was solemn and respectful.  The event was patriotic. It reminded all who attended of the sacrifices many have made to protect freedom and fight tyranny.  My father was a soldier during WWI and Walt’s father was a WWII veteran.  Our thanks are due to all who have served and are serving.

My journey has taken me to many places, people and callings.  Every step of the way I have known the Lord is with me.  AND he blessed me with family and friends to share the journey with me.  The “jobs,” or I’d rather say “callings,” have been a blessing as well.     It is through them I have grown and shared invaluable friendships.  I owe the Lord much praise and thanksgiving.  We have a few weeks of 2018 to go, but another year is soon here.  Where will my journey take me? Where will your journey take you?

It has been over 10 years since we went.  I recommend it!  Mount Arbel overlooking the Sea of Galilee, Banias springs near Ceasarea Philippi, Syrian border, the Jordan River, the Blue Caves and Mediterranean Sea, Qumran and Jerusalem.  The Galilee region and the Garden on the Mount of Olives were my favorite, but everyplace had special meaning.  It is a holy land.

So, we had a blizzard yesterday.  This might be the most snow we have had in one event since we moved to Missouri.  As a kid, snow meant sleding, snow forts, snowball fights, cold noses and toes.  I remember it took a long time for our stiff fingers to work well enough to play a game of caroms when we finally came back into the house.  That was how we took advantage of snowy winters in Nebraska.

I found out many, maybe even most Minnesotans like snow.  When I lived there it seemed like Minnesotans wore it as a badge of honor to be able to survive the cold and snow of winter.  Snowmobiling, skiing (cross-country and downhill), snow-shoeing,  ice-fishing, dog-sledding, etc. the fun never stopped.  People were not fazed by a blizzard, snow plows efficiently kept roads open, schools were rarely canceled and I don’t remember church ever being canceled because of wintery conditions.

I lived near Langley, British Columbia for two years in the late 1970’s.  Even before a snowflake hit the ground the staff who lived off campus at the college where I worked were in their cars heading home.  The accumulaton of snow was never more than an inch or two, but the people seemed to fear even a small amount.

It snowed twice in deep south Texas during our years there.  It was such a novelty I had a young friend call me Christmas morning after a Christmas eve snow fall and ask me, “How do you make a snowman?”

Snow is snow wherever we find it.  People’s reaction to it is what is different and interesting.  I still like snow, but I would probably like it better in 70 degree temperatures.  Not likely to happen, though.

For the reader in your family, consider ordering RJ’s Journey, RJ’s Valley, RJ’s Legacy as well as Matthew Hartmann and the Pony Express and Year of the Hawk Rescue.  Books are available on this website, Amazon.com and Kindle, and Ben Franklin in Sandstone MN.  I say this as a gift idea for the “reader” in your family, but folks who identify as “not interested in reading” have enjoyed these books.

The RJ series is done and out there for the world to see.  It was, also, fun to write about the “Pony”  and my young friends in the “Hawk” book.  It is time for some other projects.  I have two books in the writing stage currently.  They are not historical fiction, but they are fictional.  The picture above is a hint about the “characters” in one of the books I’m writing.

Also, getting ready for the Midwest Parent Educators conference in KC in April ’19.  I will be selling and signing books there.  I will, also, be leading a workshop on the journey from writing to publishing.  So thankful for all who are enjoying the books I have written.  I have many more ideas for books.  It will be fun to see them come to “life.”

A big thank you to Sara Pugsley who helps me in so many ways…publicist, proof reader, editor, technical staff and all round encourager.