No Blueberries

by   October 12, 2020 with No Comments

By Lynna Clark

So how was your Labor Day weekend? I heard a lady say once that growing up on a farm with seven siblings, their dad had them convinced that Labor Day was the one day of the year when folks worked the hardest. No picnics on THAT farm!

Traditionally our family gathered at Mama and Daddy’s lake house. He would fry fresh chicken outdoors in a giant cast iron skillet over a fire. He knew exactly how to keep the temperature right so the chicken would be tender and juicy inside but crispy on the outside. THAT my friend is an ART! My mouth waters at the memory of it. Mama made homemade potato salad and slaw. We’d usually have green beans and corn from the garden and plenty of desserts. On patriotic holidays Mama would also make cherry yum-yum to look like the American flag. Blueberry pie filling in one corner represented the stars while alternating stripes of cherries and cream cheese filling completed Old Glory. One of the new sons-in-law, made the mistake of dipping into the stars all willy-nilly. Every relative there had to point out that “THE NEW GUY ATE ALL 50 STATES!” The NERVE!

After Mama’s passing, Daddy moved to the lake full time. It’s a beautiful place with a gorgeous view. But we sure miss Mama. She was in charge of life jacket reminders, menu assignments, small flags for the grandchildren to wave, and generally keeping the chaos organized. Of course she also kept watch so no one went swimming before waiting the obligatory thirty minutes after eating. Her biggest job was keeping Daddy in line. That always turned out to be her most challenging assignment.

Daddy’s birthday is near Labor Day. He turned eighty seven this year. Praise God he is still strong and healthy. It may or may not have something to do with the t-shirt one of the kids gave him years ago. It included the blessing/curse assuring that the grumpier one is, the longer God lets them live.

Just sayin’.

We didn’t get to go to the lake this year. I really missed it. But apparently Daddy has been grumpier than me for he’s still kickin’ while I can barely function. It’s hard to come to grips with change. Seasons come and go. It shouldn’t surprise me that change is going to happen. Then it does and I find once again that I don’t much like it. Currently our country seems to be going through an extreme amount of change all at once. I had a teacher who used to say, “Do the best you can with what you’ve got; then forget the rest.”

So for now, while we still can, let’s have all the picnics, wave all the flags, find reasons to laugh with one another, and forget the rest. Life and change will continue to happen. Let’s make the best of what we have and by God’s grace let go of the rest; Even if it means no blueberries in our yum-yum.

Pray for Leaders

by   October 10, 2020 with No Comments

By Doug Creamer

            The recent diagnosis of President Trump and his wife Melania with COVID-19 has highlighted several things for me. Whether you agree or disagree with his policies, whether you are a democrat or republican, whether you like his personality or dislike it…all those things really aren’t important, he is the President. The Bible tells us plainly to pray for our leaders.  

            President and Melania Trump need our prayers. Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his wife Jill need our prayers. We should want all our government leaders and the candidates who are running for offices to be protected or healed from the COVID-19 virus and any other virus or flu. How you feel about a candidate should not affect your willingness to pray for their health and well-being.

            I know it is election season and we want our candidate to win. We look forward to celebrating on election night that our candidates have defeated their challenger and will lead us into a bright future. No matter how badly you want your candidates to win, you shouldn’t want your opponents to have potentially life-threatening illnesses.

            The Bible teaches us in many scriptures that we need to pray for our leaders. Look at Romans chapter 13 or I Timothy chapter 2, just to name a couple of passages. The Bible doesn’t say if you like your leader, pray for them. It just plainly says that we should pray for our leaders.

            It goes without saying that we should pray good things for our leaders. I want all government leaders in any office to succeed…so I can succeed. If they fail or are unsuccessful in their efforts to govern then that could have negative effects on my life.

            One thing we can pray is that God will give our governmental leaders godly advisors. We can pray that the leaders will listen to these godly men and women as they make decisions. I can see in scripture where godless or ungodly leaders acted favorably towards believers; that is a good thing we can all pray. We can also ask God to allow His favor to rest on the land they are governing. Having godly advisors close to our leaders can bring great blessing for everyone.

            Since we are in election season, I want to encourage you to pray and ask God to guide you in choosing the best candidates for the jobs. We want the best candidates from the president all the way down to the mayors. I believe God will guide us if we ask.

            I want to encourage you to go and vote. So many people don’t vote in elections. I read that if all the people who didn’t vote in the last presidential election voted for a third party candidate they would have won easily. Encourage your neighbors and co-workers to go out and vote. Voting, especially in local elections, is very important. A few votes can determine which local officials are elected.

            While we are talking about praying for our leaders, I would like to add another group of leaders to your prayer list. I want to encourage you to pray for your pastor. Pastors need our prayers. We want them to pray for us. I love it when my pastor prays for me. I imagine he likes when I pray for him, too. Pastors are on the front lines for our churches and they need our prayer support and encouragement.

            While we are praying for pastors, let’s pray for all our church leaders. Sunday school teachers, youth leaders, elders, deacons, choir directors, and missionaries all need our prayers. It is not easy to keep a church moving in the right direction and every prayer makes a difference. I believe it pleases God when we are interceding for all our church leaders.

            I want to encourage you to spend some time praying for all the different leaders in your life. In this election season, we need God’s wisdom to make good choices. In our churches, we need to pray for our pastors and all the leaders to guide us and make good decisions so we can make a difference in our communities for Christ. In our professional lives, we need godly men and women to make good decisions so our places of employment will grow and prosper and we can keep our jobs. When we pray we are having an impact and changing the world around us. So do your part and pray.

Contact Doug Creamer at PO Box 777, Faith, NC 28041or doug@dougcreamer.com

Looking at Food Labels

by   October 5, 2020 with No Comments

By David Freeze

I’m writing this on Thursday morning and just back from one of those glorious runs that really jumpstart the day. I watched the Yankees/Indians playoff thriller last night, slept three hours and hit the road just after 5 a.m. this morning. I had an air temperature of 50, no wind, light ground fog and a glorious nearly full moon that illuminated the road. Now my mind is racing with ideas to share with this column.

I serve as wellness consultant for a company out of Carson City, Nevada, and the September health topic concerned food labels and how to make sense out of them. One of the best topics we shared this month had to do with misleading food product labels and the inaccurate claims made that don’t coincide with the FDA information that’s required.

What we eat makes a lot of difference in our performance, but its just one part of the complete puzzle. But here are some things to watch for on food products as you shop. Yes, I’m one of those people who reads the label on anything I buy. This is a sure sign of caring about your body. That person you see in the grocery aisle reading the back of the container is making an investment in their future.

Here are some of the claims and a quick primer on the real facts as I see them.   

Low-fat

Something that’s low fat doesn’t mean it has fewer calories or that you can eat it without concern for weight gain. Be aware that any reduced fat is likely to have added sugar to salvage the taste. And a big benefit of good fat is that it makes us feel fuller longer, so it takes less to satisfy our hunger.

All-natural

Foods with this label want us to believe they are better for you and the environment. The manufacturers want us to believe we are doing something good for our bodies. All-natural foods are not organic and these foods remain unregulated. I bought a jar of peanut butter the other day with this claim and found no FDA label. There is no guarantee that the product has better ingredients or production that makes it better for you. Buy foods made with healthy and whole ingredients, locally produced if possible.

Vitamin-fortified

The manufacture wants us to think that we are getting extra vitamins in products labeled this way. Likely as not, we would be buying food that was stripped of essential vitamins in the process of making it, then some or others may have been added back in. Avoid as much processed food as possible due to this practice. Processed food, including nearly all packaged snacks, want the public to think of vitamin fortified as a way to forget the empty calories, excess sugar and unhealthy fats. Get your vitamins in the fruits and vegetables that should have them.

GMOs

Manufacturers want us to believe that GMOs are bad and a “no GMOs” label means the product is good for us. And that we should pay more for it that since it has not been genetically modified. There is conflicting research on this topic, and more coming daily with mixed results. Some suggest that GMOs help foods last longer, have higher levels of antioxidants or vitamins and likely will taste better. My suggestion is to read the complete FDA label for health benefits instead of focusing on the product claim.     

Organic

Possibly the most used term that wants us to believe that these products are healthier, safer and better for the environment. But the reality is that the USDA has strict guidelines that are hard to achieve, including those grown in soil that has been pesticide-free for three years, hormone- and antibiotic-free meats and raised in conditions that emulate their natural environments. Most often, these claims can’t be guaranteed. The organic label according to past Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman is a marketing tool rather than a guarantee of food safety, nutrition or quality. But I do believe that there is a certain added value in organically labeled products especially when purchased from locally known farmers or businesses.

Two actual running races are scheduled locally in October. Look for upcoming running events at www.salisburyrowanrunners.org .

My COVID Journey Part 2

by   October 4, 2020 with No Comments

By Ann Farabee

A journey can be defined as a long and difficult process of change that you travel through. To travel through means you go in on one side and come out on the other side.

I was on a journey.

I was in a process of change.

I was determined to travel through — and come out on the other side — of COVID.

From the very beginning of my journey, it was as if an enemy was attacking my body, trying to take away who I was by keeping my focus on my sickness.

The timeline:

Day 1 — Temp 99.0. Headache. Achy. Breathing problems.

Day 2 — Completely normal.

Day 3 — Temp 100.5. Headache. Achy. Weak. Breathing problems.

Day 4 — COVID test taken. Twelve hours later, results: POSITIVE.

My first words as I saw the results, “Oh no.”

Day 5 — A 10-day isolation order and a family quarantine order of 14 days began. Our grandchildren could not go to school. Charles and my son made sure all precautions were taken for our family, so they would not get the virus. But, my son got the virus on this day, but was well four days later.

With the restrictions, people we knew realized that getting needed items — food, groceries, medical, household, personal — would be difficult. God sent angels in human form to minister to our family during this time. We accepted it.

Day 6. There were daily calls, emails, or texts from the Get Well Loop, health alliance, or doctor’s office. Otherwise, I would have spent those long hours worrying if I needed a question answered. I was able to rest at home, had resources to do so at that point, and the ability to stay connected with medical professionals. They were my lifeline.

Day 7. The symptoms that had already arrived still remained — and new ones continued to join them — a rash, a cough, sore throat, and I know it may sound weird — but vivid dreams.

Day 8. Medically, every avenue possible at this time had been set in place for me to get well while isolated at home, and using what I had been told to use: Robitussin, Mucinex, alternate acetaminophen and ibuprofen, along with two types of inhalers that I had begun a month earlier, due to breathing problems.

Oh how my heart longed for getting well while at home. But it was getting to be too much on me — and on my family.

The emotional, spiritual and mental all began to join in with the physical. I was starting to feel as if I was losing myself to my sickness. I was no longer watching TV while lying in my bed. I had stopped reading and paid little attention to my phone.

Blurry vision and watery eyes had joined the other symptoms and were making everything more difficult — and more scary.

It seemed as if the only prayer I could pray was, “Lord, heal me.”

Late that evening, Charles peeked around the door of our bedroom to check on me, thinking I may be asleep. As always, he was wearing his mask, but all I could see when we made eye contact were the tears in his eyes. It broke my heart.

I took a deep breath.

I closed my eyes.

Okay, Lord, I hear you.

I am not getting well.

I need to go to the ER.

We went.

COVID-19 was our enemy.

JESUS-2020 would be our deliverer.

Next week, I will be continuing to share my COVID-19 story. Thank you for reading or viewing it. If you have questions or comments, I would love to hear from you at annfarabee@gmail.com or annfarabee.com

One Step at at Time

by   October 3, 2020 with No Comments

By Doug Creamer

One Step at a Time

            I was heading to bed last Sunday night and thought I would like a little ice cream before I turned in. The ice cream seemed especially soft. I figured the refrigerator was just going through the defrost cycle; I could hear the fan running.

            I tossed and turned, thinking about what a terrible time it would be for the refrigerator to go. My wife was up doing a few last minute things before bed. She came in as I was dozing off and told me that things were defrosting in the freezer. I got back up and checked on things. The fan in the refrigerator was running, but the compressor was not.

            It was too late to do anything about it at that point. I returned to bed and tossed and turned some more. What were we going to do? I was up early for my online classes. The great thaw was continuing. I texted the pastor and asked if I could move some freezer things up to the church, since we weren’t currently having any meals there. He said yes, and we went through our thawing freezer and got things that were still frozen moved up to church.

            The pastor told me there was a dorm-sized refrigerator up at church I could borrow for a few days until I could figure out the next steps. We were thankful. We threw out things that were beyond saving and then went through the refrigerator, too.

            We went to the store to pick out our new refrigerator and were met with a surprise. There is an appliance shortage going on across the country thanks to COVID. There were two models the retailer could deliver in about a week, neither of them were right for us.

            We decided to shop around. Retailer after retailer told us the same story. There were no refrigerators in stock and we could be looking at a two month wait for what we wanted. There were a few models available; some were just a step above the dorm refrigerator we were borrowing from church. 

            I went to Habitat for Humanity with no luck. I then found a 40-50 year old refrigerator that looked like it had been through the war. I took a chance and spent two days scrubbing and cleaning it to make it marginally presentable. It does run and we are hoping it will keep running until we can get one delivered.

            To say it has been a stressful week is an understatement. I have been thinking about my Boy Scout days and the motto to be prepared. I used to have an old refrigerator in the garage. It died over a year ago and I decided not to replace it. My plan was to get a new one for the house and put the one from the kitchen out in the garage.

            I have been trying to figure out what God wants me to learn through this situation. I think God wants me to learn that living by faith requires small steps. Sometimes those steps don’t look like a good way to go. I can’t see ahead. I have to learn to trust God, especially when I can’t see the next step.

            When things are going crazy and your stress level is up, that’s when it can be really hard to hear from God. There are so many thoughts running around in my head, it is hard to quiet myself long enough to hear from heaven. God’s ways and His plans are always the best. They may not seem to make sense in the moment, but that is where faith and trust come in.

            I am not saying that I have this down. I am still struggling to walk and live by faith. God has assured me that He is well aware of our situation. My job is to lean on Him. I have many years of experience walking with God through troubled waters. I have to remind myself that He saw me through all the other times; He will see me through again. His arm is not too short. If He can take care of over a million people in the desert for 40 years, He can see me through this situation as well. My God will never fail.

            I want to encourage you that if you feel like you are in a difficult place trying to find which way to go, trust God. He will guide you one step at a time. It may not make sense, that’s why it requires faith to trust Him. He will not leave you alone. He will come through for you. Contact Doug Creamer at PO Box 777, Faith, NC 28041or doug@dougcreamer.com

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