Author: Anna Lee

Tuesday

 

“Let the peoples praise You, O God;

let all the peoples praise You.”

~Psalm 67:5~

 

Written by Connor Corkern’s Mom about Jadon and his Family

Tomorrow a very dear friend of mine will take her 2 year old son to Michigan to have half of his brain removed in hopes of relieving his tired little body of seizures.  Let’s talk about courage, stength?  Faith? Boy, does she have it all..  I’ve known Monica for most of my adult life.  We have had many ups in our single life finding the perfect mate, both have a need to work with children with special needs, and are both mothers who would go to the ends of the earth to help her child.  She is simly amazing.  She has effortlessly made HUGE decisions all in trying to cure her son.  She has tried many remedies to help sweet, sweet Jadon.  Nothing has helped.  She gives me courage and helps restore my faith.

Jadon was born in August of 2008.  I can remember being so excited because Monica was going to have two boys, just like me.  Little did we know that our similarities would keep on going…unfortunately.  Jadon was diagnosed with infantile spasms when he was 5 months old.  These spasms, have turned into seizures that have taken control of his life, along with his families.  I HATE that Jadon has to go through so much so young, but I know that he was once a brave soul, just like my Connor, who came to the Earth to help people find compassion, love, and renew their love in the Lord.   Luckily Jadon found the perfect parents, and best big brother Jacob.  They give Jadon such unconditional, unfailing love that I’m in awe of.

They take off tomorrow on a jet plane.  Are they going into the unknown?  Yes.  Are they scared?  Yes.  But are they hopeful?  Absolutely yes.  I told Monica that I was extremely worried about coming home from China with a blind Connor.  I was worried that our community would think they did all of this for nothing.  Even though Connor came back with some vision, he is still legally blind.  I know that our community will stand by us no matter what.  We live in a wonderful place where people genuinely care for one another, they look out for each other, and deeply love their neighbor.  Even if they’ve never met.

So, as you go about your day tomorrow my friends, please say a silent prayer for my friend Monica, Adam, Jacob, and beautiful Jadon.  Just imagine laying your child into a stranger’s arms to cut into their brain.  But imagine the strength of a mother hoping to cure her son’s epilepsy.  Thank you my friends.  love you all.  love you most Monica.

Jadon’s Story:  Tomorrow is the day

 We are leaving for Detroit tomorrow. I can’t believe it is already here. I really don’t have much to say because this is starting to feel like a dream. Anyway we are having a prayer send off tomorrow at 2:00 in the parking lot at house on the rock. We would love to see you there. I’m very excited that the community can all come together as one and pray for me. It’s awesome and I can’t wait to see everyone before I leave. Well I’ll update you once we get to Detroit. Right now I’m going to snuggle with my mom in the rocking chair while she holds me just a little tighter tonight. Thanks all of you for your prayers. I can’t believe how many people are praying for me and how many people truly love me. Love you all!!! Jadon
I think we can all admire the strength of this family.  I hope you will keep them close to your heart and in your prayers throughout the coming days.
Thought for the Day: It’s not easy being a mom
Judith Viorst once wrote an essay based on interviews she had with children. The subject was “What’s a good mother like?”Viorst reports that the children expected their mother to get angry from time to time. “She has to,” said Ted, “or she’ll faint from holding it in.”

“But it’s best to remember,” said Randy, “that when your mother starts to act real weird, you have to look scared and serious. Don’t giggle. When mommies are mad, they get madder if you giggle.”

“My mommy got so mad,” said Megan, “that she yanked the plate off the table and all the mashed potatoes flew into the air.”

“And why,” Viorst asked, pretending she’d never heard of such shocking behavior, “why would a mother do a thing like that?”

“Well,” said Megan, “she told my older brother, Mike, he’s 11 years old, to eat the potatoes on his plate and he said ‘Later.’ And then she told him again to eat the potatoes and Mike said ‘Soon.’ And then she told him he had better eat those potatoes right now and he said, ‘In a minute.’ And then she stood up and Mike finally took a bite and told her, ‘How can I eat them? They’re cold!'”

It truly is not easy being a Mom! But how blessed we were to have our mothers. In this country, we will honor our mothers on Sunday, and I think it’s certainly appropriate. Paul said we as Christians are to “give honor to whom honor is due” (Romans 13:7), and I can’t think of anyone any more deserving of honor than our mothers. I hope that you will honor in a special way those mothers who are like Hannah.

In I Samuel 1, we have recorded the birth of Samuel. Before he was born, Hannah prayed a vow to God. She said, “O LORD of hosts, if You will indeed look on the affliction of Your maidservant and remember me, and not forget Your maidservant, but will give Your maidservant a male child, then I will give him to the LORD all the days of his life, and no razor shall come upon his head.” (I Samuel 1:11)

The Lord heard her petition and she was blessed with the birth of Samuel. Hannah didn’t forget her vow to the Lord. She took her son Samuel to be trained at the feet of Eli, the priest of God. From a very young age, Hannah made sure that her son was preparing to serve the Lord.

I heard about a preacher a number of years ago who came home after preaching a gospel meeting, and he was asked how it went. Rather discouraged, he said that he had only baptized one young girl who was about 12 or 13 years old — all in all, comparatively speaking, not a very successful meeting. But, after that girl grew up, she married and became the mother of five sons who became gospel preachers. What a great impact that young lady ended up having in the world!

I know that mothers — especially mothers of young children — sometimes get discouraged because they wonder if they’re really accomplishing anything. Let me assure you that if you are instilling within your children a love for God and His Word, you’re accomplishing something. It may be years down the road before you see the results, but you’re having an impact. You’re making a difference.

Give honor this weekend to your own mother — and to those mothers around you — who, like Hannah, have vowed to give their children over to God.

Have a great day!

Alan Smith

Jadon’s mother, Monica, has shown such strength.  What a mother!  Jadon was blessed to have a wonderful, strong mom who knows God and trusts Him enought to surrender her two year old for brain surgery this week.
Anna Lee
I need to update you on Joey Messina’s wife.  She came through brain surgery which seems to be a success.  Joey and the family are thankful for your prayers.

Monday Evening

From Velta Morris

Please add Dr. Derry Magee to the prayer list. Last Friday, December 31, he suffered a significant stroke and is in the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit at St. Joseph Medical Hospital in Bryan, Texas.

Also, I (Velta) would appreciate the prayers of those on the prayer link. I have some medical issues that need looking into. Pray that I will glorify God in all things.

I know you will want to pray for these two families.

Monday

“LORD my God, You have done many things–

Your wonderful works and Your plans for us;

none can compare with You.

If I were to report and speak [of them],

they are more than can be told.”

~Psalm 40:5, HCSB~

Joey Messina, a former student from Independence, requests prayer for his wife who will have her 8th brain surgery in 5 years.  The surgery is today.  Please begin praying and keep praying.

There is no obituary for Mrs. Jimmie Shaw yet.  I’ll post one when it is available.

Prepare for a cold night.  You may know someone who needs assistance staying warm.  If so, do what you can.

Pray for travelers as many families will be returning home today.

Don’t forget the 2 P.M. prayer time to Jadon Pailet tomorrow in the parking lot of House on the Rock.  Be there to support this family as they take Jadon for brain surgery in Detroit.

Thought for the Day: Adding water to the mudhole

A husband and wife were driving down a country lane on their way to visit some friends. They came to a muddy patch in the road and the car became bogged. After a few minutes of trying to get the car out by themselves, they saw a young farmer coming down the lane, driving a tractor. He stopped when he saw the couple in trouble and offered to pull the car out of the mud for $50.

The couple accepted and minutes later the car was free. The farmer turned to the husband and said, “You know, you’re the tenth car I’ve helped out of the mud today.” The husband looks around at the fields incredulously and asks the farmer, “When do you have time to plow your land? At night?”

“No,” the young farmer replied seriously, “Night is when I put the water in the hole.”

There are some people who are always available to help solve problems, and there are others who spend their time making life more difficult for others (and sometimes the same person can do both!). The New Testament is filled with warnings, though, about being a “stumbling block” to others, especially to children and young Christians.

“But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe to the world because of offenses! For offenses must come, but woe to that man by whom the offense comes!” (Matthew 18:6-7)

May your day be filled with opportunities to help others in need. But don’t be adding any water to the mud hole!

Have a great day!

Alan Smith

We all know it would be a good deed to clear up a problem, but shouldn’t we confess that sometimes we have been guilty of “adding water to the mudhole”?  Let’s try to be better.

Anna Lee

Sunday

And so we shall all come together to that oneness in our faith

and in our knowledge of the Son of God;

we shall become mature people,

reaching to the very height of Christ’s full stature.”

~Ephesians 4:13 TEV~

Today is the 65th anniversary of the day Momma and Daddy got married.  She wanted a big party.  She celebrating in heaven while Daddy will be here with us for a traditional New Year’s meal.  Pray for Daddy today.

I’m thanking God Carol New made it home after a successful knee surgery.  Pray for her as she works to get that knee doing what she wants it to do.

FBC, Kentwood will have  Sunday School and the morning worship service, but nothing tonight.

Thought for the Day: Failed resolutions

At the beginning of a New Year, a high school principal decided to post his teachers’ New Year’s resolutions on the bulletin board. As the teachers gathered around the bulletin board, a great commotion started. One of the teachers was complaining. “Why weren’t my resolutions posted?” She was throwing such a temper tantrum that the principal hurried to his office to see if he had overlooked her resolutions. Sure enough, he had mislaid them on his desk.

As he read her resolutions he was astounded. This teacher’s first resolution was not to let little things upset her in the New Year.

It has been said that “nothing is certain but death and taxes.” Perhaps we should add one more thing to that list of certainties — the breaking of New Year’s resolutions! Looking back on 2008, you may be one of the fortunate ones who accomplished exactly what you hoped to accomplish during the year. But, if you’re like most of us, you didn’t read all the way through the Bible like you intended to, you quit smoking but only for a while then picked up the habit again, or you lost a few pounds only to put them back on again when your diet failed. After experiencing this failure year after year, a person tends to say to himself, “What’s the use? Why even bother to try to make these changes?”

As an old Chinese proverb puts it, though, “Failure is not falling down. Failure is not getting back up.” Or as the Japanese put it, “Fall down seven times, get up eight.” If there are areas of your life that you’ve tried to improve and failed, let this this be the month that you try again. And if you fail this month, get up and try again next month. Learn from your mistakes and become stronger. God does not turn his back on the Christian who fails (if you question that, you need only look at the story of Peter’s denial of Christ). However, He cannot help the Christian who refuses to try any longer.

“Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hearts, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded….Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.” (James 4:7-8,10)

If you have made a resolution to develop a habit that will bring you closer to God or a resolution to get rid of a habit that is pulling you away from God, may God bless you with the strength to accomplish your goal. And, if you should stumble on your journey, may He pick you up and dust you off so that you can continue on the long journey of becoming like Christ.

Have a great day!

Alan Smith

Have a great Lord’s Day and a great 2012!

Anna Lee

Saturday Afternoon

Diane Robertson Hobbs
(January 24, 1957 – December 31, 2011)

A resident of Roseland, she died on Saturday, December 31, 2011 at North Oaks Medical Center in Hammond. She was born January 24, 1957 in Amite and was 54 years of age. Visitation at McKneely Funeral Home, Amite, from 5 p.m. until 9 p.m. on Sunday and from 8 a.m. until religious services at 1 p.m. on Monday, January 2, 2012. Services conducted by Rev. Darryl Miller. Interment Hillsdale Cemetery, Hillsdale. She is survived by her son, Jimmy Singleton and his wife, Jonnie, Roseland; daughter, Kim Hobbs, Independence; 5 grandchildren, Amber Singleton, Brittany Anthony, Justin Anthony, Sierra Guenthener and Misty Hobbs; 2 great-grandchildren, Dylan Husband and Cass Anthony; aunt, Delois Bergeron, Baton Rouge. Preceded in death by her husband, Rocky Hobbs; parents, Ross “Hoody” Robertson and Mary B. Robertson; step-mother, Shirley Pierce “Aunt Nig” Robertson. For an online guestbook, visit http://www.mckneelys.com.

Saturday's 2nd Addition

Marie Kent Hood
(October 29, 1923 – December 30, 2011)

A resident of Amite, she passed away on Friday, December 30, 2011 at her home. She was born October 29, 1923 in Fluker and was 88 years of age. She is survived by her children, Lindy Hayden and husband, Brooklyn, Thomas “BoBo” Hood, William Hood and wife, Kirk, Candace Jenkins and husband, Richard and Cindy Hood; 11 grandchildren, Suzette Reid Alack and husband, Greg, Gretchen Hood Ockman and husband, Michael, Amy Hood Conti and husband, Brant, Candace Ray Bridges and husband, Richard, Nancy Hood Pray and husband, Cade, Ashton Wayne Ray and wife, Brandi, Betsy Kent Hood, Charles Morgan Reid, II, Brantley Kent Ray, Thomas James Hood, III and William Kenneth Hood; 10 great-grandchildren, Kelsey Ockman, Ryan Alack, Savannah Conti, Brendan Alack, Shannen Alack, Sophia Pray, Blake Conti, Keegan Ockman, Hudson Pray and Eli Ray. Preceded in death by her husband, Thomas James Hood; parents, Thomas Womack Kent and Camille Weishaar Kent; 3 brothers, Thomas “Tommy” Kent, Jr., Charles Kent and Donald Kent. A private family service will be held at a later date. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to St. Helena Catholic Church, Amite. McKneely Funeral Home, Amite, in charge of arrangements. For an online guestbook, visit http://www.mckneelys.com.

New Year's Eve

“Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ

and be taken forward to maturity …”

~Hebrews 6:1a NIV~

   WHAT’S ON THE OTHER SIDE?

A sick man turned to his doctor as he was preparing to leave the examination room.  He said, “Doctor, I am afraid to die.  I need to know what to expect when I go to heaven.  Please tell me what lies on the other side.”

The doctor wanted to offer comfort to his patient, but he didn’t know what to say.  Very quietly, the doctor said, “I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?!  Then why do you want to go to heaven if you don’t know?  You, a Christian man, do not know what is on the other side?”

The doctor was uneasy and was holding the handle of the door.  From the other side came a sound of scratching and loud whining.  As the doctor opened the door, a dog sprang into the room with his tail wagging and leaped on him with an eager show of gladness.

Turning to the patient, the doctor said, “Did you notice my dog?  He’s never been in this room before.  He didn’t know what was inside.  He knew nothing except that his master was here, and when the door opened he sprang in without fear.  I know little of what is on the other side of death, but I do know one thing: I know my Master is there, and that is enough.  And when the door opens, I shall pass through with no fear, but with gladness.”

It’s true that while we are given a glimpse of what lies ahead, there is a great deal that we don’t know and often wonder about.  Will there be a literal street of gold and a gate of pearl?  Highly unlikely. Those kinds of images may be helpful in understanding how precious heaven is, but they are not of much value in helping us to know exactly what it will look like.

And quite frankly, it doesn’t matter to me, for two reasons.  First of all, I trust my heavenly Father to provide nothing less than the very best for His children.  And secondly, as the doctor in the story above pointed out, the only thing that really matters is that we will be in the presence of God.  Living in a shack in His presence would be preferable to living in a mansion apart from Him.  Whatever else heaven may be, its essence is that we have the opportunity to have intimate fellowship with God.

    “And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God.’ ” (Rev. 20:12)

Recently, I read a quote that has convicted me more than anything I’ve heard in a long time.  John Piper asked the question, “If you could have heaven, with no sickness, and with all the friends you ever had on earth, and all the food you ever liked, and all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauties you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no human conflict or any natural disasters, could you be satisfied with heaven, if Christ was not there?”

It makes me wonder if we’re anxious to get to heaven to have the opportunity to be with God, or if we just want to go because it’s a place where we’ll enjoy ourselves and have all the comforts and pleasures that we’d like to have right now.  Think about it.

Have a great day!

Alan Smith
Helen Street Church of Christ
Fayetteville, North Carolina

We didn’t learn what is on the other side of this life during 2011, but maybe we will in 2012.  Are you prepared?

Anna Lee

Friday

“Let the little children come to Me, and don’t stop them,

because the kingdom of God belongs to such as these,”

~Luke 18:16b~

Jadon’s Story: Jadon Pailet

Everyone will have a chance to tell Jadon goodbye January 3 at 2:00. We will all meet at the parking lot in front of House on the Rock. We will have a prayer at 2:30 and then we will leave for Detroit. This is open for anyone and I would love to see you there.

We all know of Jesus’ love for all little children.  Jadon is one of His children who has suffered with uncontrollable seizures.  Pray for the doctors who will be evaluating and performing surgery on Jadon next week.  Pray the family continues to have peace about this decision.  Pray for Jadon as he faces new surroundings, medical staff he doesn’t know well, and for his little body to do well before, during, and after the surgery.

Jadon is one of God’s little children. God only wants the best for Jadon.  We have prayed.  Now, we have an opportunity to be a part of a brief prayer service next week.  Whether you attend on the 3rd or now, please continue to pray for Jadon and his family.

Jadon’s prayer quilt is completed and will help “cover” him with our prayers.  I’m thankful the family knows the power of prayer and treasures prayers for Jadon in this way.

God bless this family that has been through so much and is facing even more as Jadon goes through surgery.  Please support them with your mighty prayers.

Anna Lee