I don't know where you are at in the gardening season where you live but we are picking/digging the last of our produce here in North Dakota.
Being I found quite a few green tomatoes out there, I went in search of what can be done with them. I was so happy to find this video. Not only is there an awesome demonstration of how to make green tomatoe pickles but a tip for what can be done to help them ripen to be enjoyed later.
About half way through this video, the gardener shares that she wraps each green tomato in newspaper. Then she puts them in small boxes and put the boxes in a cool place. In this way, her family is able to enjoy ripe tomatoes for weeks to possibly months. I now have 2 small boxes of wrapped tomatoes to enjoy later and LESS work right now.
How are you all doing? I'm sure that you, like everyone I know, is burdened for Israel. May the Lord watch over ALL of His people around the world!! We do have the benefit of knowing, if it's our time to go, that we get to spend eternity with the Lord in His beautiful home. That is IF we have surrendered our life to Him completely.
I've been doing pretty well considering that I was in the hospital for 6 days last month. The diagnosis was pancreatitis which totally floors me as 75% of people with this problem drink a LOT of alcohol and/or have gallstones. I don't drink AT ALL and 0 gallstones were found.
I have a procedure scheduled in December where they will put a scope down my throat and see what's going on. The GI specialist that I saw said that sometimes gall stones don't show up on MRIs, CT scans, or ultrasounds all of which I had done while I was hospitalized. I'm praying that this abdominal burning and cramping is completely gone by then so I don't have to do that. I would appreciate your prayers for that too.
I am going to share a video that has given me so much hope and direction. I don't want to say much about it so as to attract as little attention as possible to it. PLEASE if you have lingering affects from COVID, please take the time to watch this. I recommend taking notes so that you get it all. Here's the link.
On the farm news. We finished harvesting the soybeans (photo below) and now we're waiting for the corn to dry down. It didn't help that it rained during the night. This is so hard for me to do, as we live in a dry area, but I'm praying that it stops raining long enough so that our guys and our neighbors can finish harvesting.
My prayers go out for all of you wonderful readers. May God bless His people with His protection; with nice warm homes; with healthy nourishing food; and with family and friends who love and support you through the hard times. He loves us so much and wants to bless us more than we can imagine. Just look up and say to Him, "I receive ALL of your blessings with deep gratitude." Then pass along your abundance with those who have less.
I'm so deeply grateful to be alive and to be a part of God's family with all of you wonderful saints!
This doctor has helped a ton of women through the principals of dealing with our hormones through fasting. May this bless all of you women out there who don't understand why you can't loose weight or think as well as you used to. This information could change your life!
I am finally feeling better but still exhaustion and cramping can come on suddenly. I covet your prayers for a total restoration from the severe attack of pancreatitis that put me in the hospital for 6 days last week.
HE GIVES ME STRENTH!!
Have a great new week serving our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ/Yeshua
I just returned home from 6 days in the hospital. I had a severe case of pancreatitis. Now to figure out how to keep a pancreas more happy when I hardly eat any sugar. There must be more to it than that. It was confusing to me as my gall bladder had no stones and my liver was happy.
I was put on narcotic level drugs for the pain and for the nausea for 5 days. I was also on the IV/ice chip diet for 4 days. This was to give my pancreas a chance to totally rest. Then I went to broth and finally to soft food. Now I have no diet restrictions except not to eat much fat.
It was confusing to all of the nurses and the doctor I was assigned to that I would have pancreatitis. The usual causes are high alcohol consumption; gall stones; high triglycerides, or a stone on top of the pancreas. Being I had none of those, why was I so sick?
A bit of light came when I mentioned to my doctor that I have MS which is an auto-immune disease. "OH," he said "It must be autoimmune pancreatitis!" And off he went to study that.
When the doc returned the next day, he told me that he had learned that there are 2 kinds of autoimmune pancreatitis. I guess there is a test to differentiate which one I have. When my good doctor tried to order the test, he wasn't able to because he's not a gastroenterologist. sigh
So he's sending me to one and I need you all to pray that I can get in soon. All of the nurses said that it's almost impossible to get in to one but our God is the God of impossibilities. PLEASE pray that I can get an appointment with a person who can give me the test; find out what this is all about; and set me on a path towards healing.
I am not well yet. I still have pain and today there is a fever brewing so I thought I would come here and ask you to pray for me. I bless you for thinking of me to the Father.
Other than that, harvest is right around the corner. I so want to be strong so that I can help with the harvest.
I love you all,
Dawn
PS This picture is not me but how I must have looked in the hospital. I was in extreme pain with nausea and exhaustion. May God bless each nurse and my doctor for getting me through the worst of it.
I've just returned from 10 days in Minnesota with my daughter and her family. I was needed to help them through sickness and their gardening rush. As usual, it's hard to tear myself away from them but my work needs to be done here.
It's September now and the days are shorter. This week the temps are going to be in the lower 90s, so Summer is still here, but we can feel it slowly slipping away. I went in search of a poem about how I am feeling and found this one.
It's so true. We have tons of work on a farm and especially at harvest time. Recently a friend had his father die in a farm accident. Please pray for that family but also pray for the safety of all farmers everywhere.
Being my garden is calling me, I will leave you all with this lovely poem. The harvest that matters the most is the empty souls needing Jesus. Let's share Him with everyone if it's only through a smile. I've had smiles change my whole day for the better.
This week was so wonderful!!! My daughter, Cora, wrote on Monday that she and her Littles were coming over THE NEXT DAY to pick choke cherries. I praise God for her amazing mother-in-law who likes to drive. It's a 5 hour trip so Kathy drives and Cora keeps her 3 children content as they travel.
We had joint meals with Andrew and his family so the food wasn't an immense burden to anyone of us. We picked choke cherries and made choke cherry juice. We went to the park. We had tea and Cora went and visited her dear friend who was just hospitalized.
We got to use my new chairs that Kathy picked up for me recently at a thrift shop. It was adorable watching my grandchildren walk into the room and look around. Then they spotted the little chairs and went and sat on one. It was their own little place to be comfortable. Sometimes they still sat with us at the big table but most of the time they sat here. What fun we had together!!!
I'm writing today to share "The Passion Translation" of the Bible with all of you who are aching to know how much God loves you.. I was raised memorizing and quoting Scriptures from "The Revised Standard Version" of the Bible. You know how it is when you learn something one way then all other ways seem "Strange?"
Later on it seemed strange to memorize Scriptures from "The King James Bible" but that was what everyone thought was the best version. When Robert and I got baptized in our mid 20s, our church gave us "The New King James" version of the holy Scriptures. That at least read the way that people talk.
Then I got involved in the whole war between the "King James" only folks and "King James changed a lot of things in his translation to keep us from having any power" folks. He was, after all, a King..... I wasted a lot of energy in that battle and ended up just as confused as I was when I entered it.
About a decade ago I purchased THE COMPLETE JEWISH BIBLE even though I'm not Jewish. I LOVE how the names of God and the people and cities are pronounced as they would have originally been. I really cherish that perspective of Christ as having been Jewish and our Messiah. That seemed to fit in well with our changing from Sunday keeping to Sabbath keeping 27 years ago. I still enjoy reading this version once in awhile.
However, why is there always a however? However, I felt alone when I read these versions. When I'd go to Bible study, I loved hearing what the Scriptures mean to my neighbor ladies but they just didn't mean that to me. I didn't get out of it what I was needing or what they were getting out of it.
Because of having been raised by a father who hated women (which led to the incest) God the Father always seemed cold and a bit stand-off-ish. Jesus I was madly in love with but His Father was something else. True, God the Father is our final Judge but, also true, He loved us so much that He allowed His only son to come to this Earth to die for us on the cross!!!!!!!!!
To make a long story short, I needed a different Bible. Then I heard about the Passion Translation. People would share passages from it on Facebook. At first I snooted my nose at it as it didn't sound like the Bible I've been memorizing all my life. As it started to sink in, though, my heart started to open up to the Father. I started to feel His love for me! I started to heal!!!
So, with great joy I share with you the passage that He just had me read. Think about God the Father loving you this intimately. Sometimes tears of joy begin as I ponder how much HE LOVES ME!
Happy Sabbath everyone.
Song of Songs 2:10 - 15. From God the Father's perspective to His child on Earth.
Arise, my dearest, Hurry, my darling. Come away with me! I have come as you have asked to draw you to my heart and lead you out. For now is the time, my beautiful one. The season has changed, The bondage of your barren Winter has ended and the season of hiding is over and gone. The rains have soaked the Earth and left it bright with blossoming flowers. The season for singing and pruning the vines has arrived. I hear the cooing of doves in our land filling the air with songs to awaken you and guide you forth. Can you not discern this new day of destiny breaking forth around you? The early signs of my purposes and plans are bursting forth. The buddings vines of new life are now blooming everywhere. The fragrance of their flowers whispers "There is change in the air." Arise, my love, my beautiful companion, and run with me to the higher place. For now is the time to arise and come away with me. For you are my dove, hidden in the split-open rock. It was I who took you and hid you up high in the secret stairway of the sky. Let me see your radiant face and hear your sweet voice. How beautiful your eyes of worship and lovely your voice in prayer. You must catch the troubling foxes, those sly little foxes that hinder our relationship for they raid our budding vineyard of love to ruin what I've planted in you. Will you catch them and remove them for me? WE WILL DO IT TOGETHER!
Can you feel the Father's love for you? He passionately wants us to trust Him. He has so many blessings for us but we must know that we can trust Him---that He is the one who has brought us through EVERY trail so far!!!
BUT WE MUST DO OUR PART!! We must hunt down every lie that has been planted in us thinking that God the Father is a big, bad meanie. That is a LIE from the enemy and perhaps the biggest one EVER!!
HE LOVES US!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh what bliss!!
Go to Him and tell Him what you believe about Him. Ask Him to tell you the truth. Ask Him to show you where He was when you were being raped or beaten or slandered.... HE WAS RIGHT THERE HOLDING YOU AND SHELTERING YOU FROM THE BLOWS OF THE ENEMY. He has brought us ALL through every attack of the enemy and He will continue doing so. It's up to us to trust Him for we can when we know the truth.
May God bless your new week and bring you His richest blessings that He has planned for you. Just open your arms, look up and say, "I receive your blessings today."
I leave you with this song about how massive God's love is for ALL of His children.
Dawn
PS. Father said to add this passage from THE PASSION TRANSLATION as it fits so well with His message above. It's from John 16:22-24
So you will also pass through a time of intense sorrow when I am taken from you, but you will see me again! And then your hearts will burst with joy, with no one being able to take it from you For here is eternal truth: When that time comes, you won't need to ask me for anything, but instead you will go directly to the Father and ask Him for anything you desire, and He will give it to you because of your relationship with me. Until now you've not been bold enough to ask the Father for a single thing in my name, but now you can ask, and keep on asking Him. And you can be sure that you'll receive what you ask for, and your joy will have NO LIMITS!!!.
