Our world is a fallen place.  Our poor household has gotten some really horrible news over the past couple of days.  I’ll start here and work downward.

As expected, our dear sister Faye, moved on to Heaven early Monday morning…around 3 am.  Her dear husband called me on Monday and told me.  He called me before he called the Pastors.  He seemed to be doing okay with it.

But then, when I got home from work on Monday, my daughter, Izzy had gotten news that one of her friends, a girl that she had grown up across the street from, was murdered in Puerto Rico.  There are no real details right now.  Her boyfriend was also killed.  The short article mentioned something about “femicide” whatever that is and how bad of a problem that is.  That murder suicide is on the table, but it is all still under investigation.

Poor Izzy is crushed.  She was actually talking to me about going down there for a visit!!  These two were dear friends.  Now, her friend wasn’t walking the straightest of lines, and I won’t go any further than that, but NOTHING that should have gotten her murdered.

And she wonders why I like living in our little cornfield surrounded, country bumpkin little town.  And even here, things are beginning to turn for the worse.  She doesn’t see it because she doesn’t know what to look for and she doesn’t go to the jail once a week and she doesn’t interact with the sheriff and the deputies and the police chief and the … you get the idea.  I am MUCH more connected in this little town than the average bear.  And it doesn’t hurt that I “been there and done that” on BOTH sides of the fence.

It’s more important than ever to follow the advice of Galatians 6:10-18 and put on the Armor of God!

¹⁰ Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. ¹¹ Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. ¹² For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. ¹³ Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. ¹⁴ Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, ¹⁵ and with your feet fitted with the (shoes of) readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. ¹⁶ In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷ Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

¹⁸ And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.

Okay, enough.  I’m going to force myself to move on to other things.  I do have some good news to share with you.  I got a present in the mail last week that Izzy bought me.  I’ll show it to you first then explain it.

It is a replica A-10 GAU-8 blast diffuser.  You can tell by the pens and pencils that it’s holding that it is NOT true to size.  But it is a WAY cool gift!  And looks extra special cool sitting on my desk!  She even made the gif for me so I could share that with you.  ‘Cause I sure don’t know how to do that stuff.

And now…. let’s move on to the other stuff, shall we?

I’ve been reading this book that my ministry partner lent to me on Isaiah 53.  That’s the book of the Old Testament that the Jews leave out of their bible because it point to Jesus as being the Messiah and they teach that the Messiah has yet to arrive.  So yeah, if you have something that disproves what you’ve been teaching, just delete it.

Anyway, it’s a really good book.  It’s called Isaiah 53.  Catchy title, right?  Anyway, a Hebrew term that they’ve used a couple of times that I had to look up was Tikkun Olam.  I had to look it up.  It literally means “Repair the World.”  But, as you can see further into the explanation, it teaches that people should perform acts of kindness to improve the world.  

Did you know that there is a kindness week coming up?  February 14th to the 22nd.  The lady who runs the base Airman and Family Readiness office brought it up at our last CAN meeting.  CAN is Community Action Network.  I am part of that because of my Base Grief Group that I started.  I said that we needed to come up with something for Kindness week.  Maybe punch cards.  Everytime you perform a kind act for someone, they punch your card and whoever has the most punches wins a prize or something.  

Or I just thought of another one that’s better.  You can tell of a kind act that someone has done for you over the week and whoever has performed the kindest act wins something….I don’t know.  Everytime I think of something, I think of ways that these guys will try to play the system…I’ll have to give it some thought.

Been there, done that!  Almost lost the car!

“Who’s a good boy?”

This one is from Stephanie…

Scientists reveal all the evidence Adam and Eve really DID exist

This guy is outstanding!

My list is long and ridiculous!  

People are more violently opposed to fur than to leather because it’s safer to harass rich women than motorcycle gangs.

Alexei Sayle (1952 – )

We were celebrating the 100th anniversary of our church, and several former pastors and the bishop were in attendance.

At one point, our minister had the children gather at the altar for a talk about the importance of the day.

He began by asking, “Does anyone know what the bishop does?”

There was silence. Finally, one little boy answered gravely, “He’s the one you can move diagonally.”

I LOVE this next one.  I forget what magazine it was in, but this was a cut-out that you could fold and then walk around it and it would behave just like you’re seeing.

Some of you may not get that one.

Two angels are cruising around heaven, bored, looking for something to do. Then one says, “Hey, I’ve got an idea! Let’s go down to Earth! I know a great disco we can check out!”

Angel Two says, “Well, I don’t know, we’re not supposed to leave heaven without permission. And what would we do with our harps? You know we’re supposed to have them with us at all times! And what if we’re late for roll call? We’ll be in trouble!”

“Oh, stop your babbling,” said Angel One. “We’ll take our harps with us, the mortals can’t see them, or even recognize us, if we don’t want them to. Roll call’s not for another 6 hours. We’ll have plenty of time to fly on down there, party a bit, and get back. Come on! I know the perfect place to go. The owner’s a friend of mine.”

So, the two angels head on down to Earth, and arrive at the disco. They walk up to the door man, who recognizes the first angel and waves them on in. He tells his buddy, “Come on, I’ll introduce you to Sam, the guy who owns this joint.” They go over to a short, stocky guy and the first angel says, “Sam, this is my buddy Harold. Harold, this is Sam.”

Sam smiles slightly and nods, then beckons the two angels toward the bar. As they walk away, the first angel explains, “Sam doesn’t talk much, everybody calls him Sam Clam.”

The two angels drink and party and dance, and generally have a good old time. The time slips by unnoticed. Suddenly, Harold looks at the clock and gasps. “Hey man! We’ve gotta fly! We’ve only got 20 minutes until roll call!”

The other angel says, “Relax! We’ve got plenty of time. But you’re right, we’d better get going.” He starts going around, saying good-bye to everybody, with Harold trying desperately to hurry him up. “Come on! Come on! We’ll be late!”

Finally he’s ready to go, and they take off for heaven. “See?” he says, I told you, plenty of time.”

Just as they arrive at the Pearly Gates, Harold suddenly stops short, a panicked look on his face. “Oh no!” he gasps. “We’re gonna get caught! Oh man, we’re busted! We’re in trouble!” “Why? Why?” asks the first angel. “We’re almost there! We can make it!”

“No, it’s not that,” cries Harold. “I left my harp in Sam Clam’s disco!”

There is a new virus going around, called “work”.

If you receive any sort of”work” at all, whether via email,internet or simply handed to you by a colleague…DO NOT OPEN IT.

Work has been circulating around our building for months and those who have been tempted to open “work” or even look at “work” have found that their social life is deleted and their brain ceases to function properly.

If you do encounter “work” via email or are faced with any “work” at all, then to purge the virus, send an email to your boss with the words “Sorry…I’m off to the pub”. The “work” should automatically be deleted from your brain.

If you receive “work” in paper-document form, simply lift the document and drag the “work” to your garbage can. Put on your coat and skip to the nearest bar with two friends and order three beers. 

After repeating this action 14 times, you will find that “work” will no longer be of any relevance to you.

Send this message to everyone in your address book. If you do not have anyone in your address book, then I’m afraid the “work” virus has already corrupted your life.

It was said, that we needed to check with Aussie Pete and see if the above facts were true or not.

And those are Aussie Pete’s three words.  And NO ONE ELSE has put in a submission!  What’s wrong with you people!?  Come on!!!  I want some three word submissions, so let’s go!

Man, what a great picture that is.

AND was ANY of it a SURPRISE?!?!

Like my first or second day of Basic Training, far from home for the first time, a little scared, I’m sitting in a classroom and this instructor walks in and draws the exact same picture on a chalkboard in the front of the classroom.  I didn’t even think we would be IN a classroom in basic training.  And he yells really loud, “DOES ANYBODY KNOW WHAT THAT IS?”  And of course, no one said a word.  You could’ve heard a pin drop.  Then he says, “THAT’S TWO AIRMEN WALKING ABREAST!”  And then he starts laughing hysterically at himself like it’s the funniest thing he’s ever heard, even though he’s probably told that exact same joke a thousand times over.  It was at that point that I KNEW that this was going to be a cake walk.

OH     MY     GREAT     AUNT     SALLY     !!!!!  I don’t have the words.  I really would not know what to say to this person if I met them in the wild.

Absolutely hilarious!!!