Picturing East Texas

This is actually a sunset.  But since I cannot figure out how to add pictures to the bottom of my page rather than at the beginning...  we'll pretend it is a sunrise!

This is the little Seventh-day Adventist church in Marshall, Texas.  I live in the trailer to the right.  It has been a blessing to have a place of my "own" to come "home" to at night!

This is my neighbor.  She hasn't been visiting me much lately as she has a little family to take care of.  But she and her husband still come to my stump restaurant to eat sunflower seeds.

Texas has a lot of warblers that I cannot identify yet.  But this one I knew!  They pass through Iowa on their migration route - the Common Yellow warbler.  It's a blurry picture, but can you tell that he is so light he is perched on just a couple needles of the pine tree!

This cute and shiny beetle flew ahead of me for quite awhile one day while walking at a park.  I never saw such a friendly bug. : )  He even posed for a picture!

You probably can't see this clear enough.  It is an authentic Texas Longhorn!  It was on the outside of my kitchen window one night eating bugs that flew by.  I am glad he was outside, or you would never see my hand this close to such a ferocious beetle.  He was huge!

Found this herd while delivering drop-off Bible studies on a back road of Marshall.  It was a crazy, bumpy road and I felt like I was on safari.  When I saw these guys I REALLY felt like I was on safari!  There are about 30 of them and a few other odd African animals on this property owned by the son of the former judge of Marshall.  They are smaller in real life than I thought they would be - only about 13 hands high!  And they are VERY shy!

The ranches here in East Texas are mostly hobby ranches with fancy breeds.  I visited one that had about 50 head of cattle, mostly Semintals.  This little guy's Mom died...

Daffodils grow wild all over here in early February.  So pretty!

The only armadillo I have seen.  Unfortunately the coyote saw him first. : (

A bayou of Texas near Caddo Lake.  I always wondered what a bayou was.  In Iowa we would call it a run-off ditch.  In Michigan they call it a marsh.  Maybe they call it a bayou because in this part of the country there is always a run-off ditch close "by-you"?

The "knees" of cyprus trees (stick up out of the water so the tree can "breathe") - through their "knees."  It is strange, but that's the only way they would survive.  Created with forethought!

The cyprus trees at Caddo Lake with Spanish moss hanging down like uncombed hair.

Getting Out vs. Entering In

This morning I was praying, talking to God, about how a lot of my thoughts lately have been focused on getting out of this mess of a world - getting out of the pain, the ugliness, the death, the temptations, the circumstances I don’t like, the sin... And I realized that I have been thinking more about getting out than entering in.

Obviously you have to get out of something in order to enter into something else. As a child I remember being frustrated because I had inadvertently put my pants on before my underwear. Maybe it is more work for a 4 yr old to get dressed, or maybe it was my laziness... but I did not want to take off my pants to put on my underwear and then have to put my pants on again. (You are about to discover why Toni wears dresses all the time! ha ha ha ha ha!)

So, I tried to put on my underwear over my pants. I was just sure that I could somehow get those underwear to go “underthere,” where they belonged. I pulled them on over my pants and tugged and twisted them around and went through all sorts of contortions to try to get those underwear to go inside the pants. I remember being SO frustrated: “The pants have a hole for the waist and two holes for the legs. So do the underwear... Why won’t this work?!!” I was in tears by the time Mom convinced me that I had to get out of the pants before I could get in to the underwear.

It is important to see our need to get out of our sin, out of this mess of a world, out of the temptations... “outta here!” But we also need to focus on entering in. I realized this morning that I’m running away from this world more than I am running to my God.

Does anyone run a race as if they were running away from the starting line? It made me laugh to think of that. Imagine someone running at top speed, constantly looking back at the starting line as if escaping from it! No, we don’t run away from starting lines; we run toward the finish lines.

Hebrews 3 & 4 came to mind. The Israelites were getting out of the slavery and idolatry of Egypt. No doubt they thought about “getting out” a lot. (You can read the history of this in the book of the Bible called “ The Exodus.”) But most of them had few, if any, thoughts about “entering in” -- into the service and worship of God. (notice the next book is not called “The Entering.”) They were running away from Pharaoh, but they were not running to God.

...“Let us therefore strive to enter that rest”... Hebrews 4:11 What if I would spend as much time seeking God as I spend seeking to get away from sin? What if I thought about entering into the Promised Land as much as I think about getting out of this mess of a world?

I see now that both getting out and entering in are equally important. And I am thankful for the privilege to run full-speed; not merely with heart-pounding fear as I run to escape from sin, but also with heart-pounding anticipation as I run toward the arms of God.

Special thanks to Raquel Sancho

Many people have told me that I should join Facebook or get a blog or something.

Their reasons have been compelling: people will know where you are at and what you are doing, you will only have to write things once, you can post some of your pictures, people will be able to send short comments, and you can respond with short comments rather than a whole e-mail or handwritten letter... it will save you time and you will stay in touch better...

But my friend Raquel Sancho, who I met recently in San Jose, CA was very persistent with her suggestions for better communication.  "Toni, you have to get a blog or something, so I can still have Bible studies with you when I get back to the Philippines.  Post Bible studies for me!"

I don't know how often I will get a chance to post anything!  But along with the pictures, updates, and stories of adventures "with Him," I will try to include some Bible studies for you Raquel (and anyone else who cares to read them of course).  Thank you for insisting!  This will be fun for me to have an outlet for sharing with everyone what is most precious to me.  But please, keep studying God's Word on your own too!  OK?

Blessings,  Toni

P.S.  The "On the Spot" picture was taken near Karnak, Texas by my best friend Jacqueline Shelley.  She came from Michigan to visit me during her spring break.  We saw this abandoned building while on our way to Caddo Lake State Park and stopped for a few pictures.  Fun!

Sea Rim Adventure

Jacqueline Shelly and I took off on a 4 1/2 hour dash to the Gulf Coast.  The destination was Sea Rim State Park, which we were told was closed because of a hurricane last Sept.  I had never seen hurricane damage before - it was sickening.  I couldn't believe the destruction.

But, of course, Toni got us lost on the way! (yes, even with the Garmin navigator - it's not Toni proof)  We ended up on a little road that ran along the coast, right on the edge of the sea.  And the road was full of HUGE potholes!  This one was nearly knee deep!  It was super fun to four wheel on!  I will remember that as much as I remember the Gulf!

This is how all the houses were down there on the coast - on 10 foot stilts!  They still got destroyed though.  This one was newly rebuilt.

So we finally arrive at Sea Rim State park...

This was the bathhouse at Sea Rim State park.  There is nothing left but the skeleton!

(The sign caught our attention next!)

Stairs that lead to nothing... toilets randomly scattered around...

See how this metal rim on the table is completely folded over the wire!  I imagine it was blowing like a flag in the wind during the hurricane.  It gives one an erie feeling to think of the power that was there a few months ago, and knowing that we wouldn't have survived it.

Sea Rim State Park is literally at the rim of the ocean now.  The water washed out huge chunks of the land and everything "under."

This was a crab eating a blue jellyfish.  It looked like it was quite the fight for awhile!  I didn't feel bad for the jellyfish at the time because I didn't know what it was.  This picture kinda looks like the crab is preparing for a birthday party by blowing up balloons.

We could have made soup with the stuff washed up on the beach! There was even an onion!  But the water was so polluted though, it was black and thick like oil... yucky!

Has anyone ever seen this phenomenon?  These "mud balls" with little shells stuck in them were all over the beach.  What makes them roll up lie this?

These birds were very smart looking.

Looking back to the land side was knee high grass as far as you could see.  But the terrain is so flat, you don't see very far. Despite all the destruction the flowers still bloom...

The shells were so pretty!  We gathered a whole bucket full of them.  Jacq also found an artistic black bottle, and a coconut that had washed in. 

Thanks for going with me on our whirlwind adventure to the Gulf Coast, Jacq!  Luv you!