Psalm 61

¹Hear my cry, O God; attend unto my prayer.

²From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I.

³For thou hast been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy.

⁴I will abide in thy tabernacle for ever: I will trust in the covert of thy wings. Selah.

⁵For thou, O God, hast heard my vows: thou hast given me the heritage of those that fear thy name.

⁶Thou wilt prolong the king's life: and his years as many generations.

⁷He shall abide before God for ever: O prepare mercy and truth, which may preserve him.

⁸So will I sing praise unto thy name for ever, that I may daily perform my vows.

Mary's surgery

Mary's surgery is today at 2:00, so please keep her in your prayers! I would really appriciate it! Mary beleives that God has forgotten about her, Pray that she will see that He hasn't!
Rachel

Mary and Stacy.

Mary has been working as much as she feels up to because she knows that she won't be able to after surgery. She looks great, but when she stands she is a little unstable, and she is still in pain, but she doesn't want to sit and mope at home so she comes in to work. I haven't really had any chances to really talk to her, but pray for oppertunities. 

Stacy was gone all this week, and I didn't know until today why. Her grandfather died. Stacy was really close to her grandpa, but hasn't seen him in about two years. She was talking about him just last week saying that she really needs to visit him. But a couple days ago, he excused himself from the table because he wasn't feeling well, and an hour later he was dead. His heart failed him just like that! So now Stacy is beating herself up that she didn't visit him (he lived in Mass.) The point is, God is really, really working on her! But, please pray for her and her family as they go through this time. 

Thanks!

Rachel

Another update:

Mary's tumors are cancerous. They scheduling surgery within the next 10 days to try and take it all out. However, the Doctors said that the cancer seems to be very advanced, and it doesn't look good at all. Also, Mary was living with, and taking care of her sister who is very sick also. Now that Mary is in bad condition there is no one to take care of Lee. Please pray for that angle of this whole situation. 

Also, keep praying for Stacy because I'm afraid that this whole thing might push her away from God instead of bringing her to Him. I really believe that only through our prayers will she realize that God is in control no matter what. (We also told her that we would ask our church and our friends to pray... so please remember!) 

Some of you may have gotten this in a email, but if you could maybe share a verse of an encouraging thought that we could share with either Mary or Stacy please send it to me and I'll make sure it gets to them.. Several people have already done this. I know both Stacy and Mary would appreciate that people, who don't even know them, are praying and caring! 

God is watching over!

Rachel

Update:

Chrystal called Stacy today to see if there were any new updates on whether the Tumor is cancerous or not. Stacy hadn't heard of any, but is planning to go visit Mary tomorrow. We did find out however that both of Mary's parents died from cancer, and that Mary is too weak to even dress herself right now. I was shocked because I just worked with Mary last Sat. and she seemed fine. Stacy thinks that Mary - who never complains anyways- didn't go to the doctor because she couldn't afford it. 

Chrystal was also able to talk to Stacy for about 20 min. in which time she shared her testimony and also prayed with Stacy. Stacy -who doesn't have a very good opinion of Christians - didn't mind at all. God is definitely using this situation to soften her heart!

I am going to be working the next three days, so just pray for opportunities with the other co-workers as well as conversations occur.

Keep Praying!!!

Thanks, 

Rachel

Please Pray!!!!

Some of you may have heard about this at church, but I would really appreciate your prayers for my co-worker Mary. She just found out she has a tumor that is very possibly cancerous. She is in her 50s or 60s and not saved. Also, Stacy (another co-worker whom many of you have heard us talk about) is taking this really hard because she and mary were really close. Stacy is either 22 or 23 and def. not a christian. Anyways, Stacy called the other day simply to ask Chrystal and I to pray for Mary, and to have our friends pray as well. She said she knew she could depend on us. That in itself is a huge step for Stacy! Also, it's neat that she knew she could call us because we have never outrightly told her that we are christians, but somehow she knew! So, you can pray that I will have opportunities through this to share Christ with them. The Lord is trying to get ahold of Stacy, and already I have seen her softening. 

I know you all will be praying, so thank you in advance!!!

I appreciate  you guys so much!

Rachel

Maine Trip

As most of you probably know... My family went on a camping trip to Acadia, Maine. The easiest way to express how amazing it was is just to say that it almost ties Algonquin  for first! (almost... anyways.. ;) The weather was perfect almost the whole week! Which is something I am especially grateful for because it always rains when we go camping!!!  Anyways, I am not going to go into much detail because most of you probably don't care to hear them all... but I'll mention a few of the highlights.... 

The hiking was everything I hoped it would be! Precipice was awesome! (Sorry Josh Stauffer, I know you are still mad you didn't get to do it.. but I loved it!) 

Another reason hiking was so awesome was because there were Blueberries everywhere! We were always stopping and picking handfuls to revive us!

Biking was "interesting"... about halfway through I flipped and had to ride the rest of the way with one hand... (my mom didn't want me to hike with my arm hurt, but I convinced her it "wasn't hurting"... lol)

Swimming was COLD... (55 degrees to be exact ... and it was an overcast day... but hey what's life without excitement? - that's what andrew the optimist says anyways...)

The Nature Cruise was def. worth the money, the wind jammer however -not so much- While on the Nature Cruise we saw a Bald Eagle, two porpoises, two harbor seals, and three osprey in their nest. 

Dad and Mom's biplane trip was one of the big excitements of the week! We all pitched in a little to get my dad to go, and pops wanted to do something exciting because this was his 54th birthday and Teddy R. did the river of doubt when he was 54.. (teddy is dad's hero). They got some great ariel pics. 

The Ocean was Gorgeous!!!!! we went out a couple of nights when the moon was full and it was bright enough to read a book!! The moon shining on the water was so pretty... and it made for lots of great pictures. 

Another great incident was when we walked across the Bar to an island....We hiked to the top of the Island and were getting great pictures, but didn't seem to notice that the bar was shrinking.. We ended up walking (rather quickly) through rapidly rising water to avoid being stuck on the island all night.. lol... 

All of these memories are great, but there is one that especially sticks out to me... 

The Mayberry band!!! You had to be there to understand, but it was a band of all elderly people. The Drummer was an old lady in pink shorts who kept the beat, but was hilarious to watch! Oh and the Flautist... A huge man who looked thrilled to be playing! To say it nicely... They weren't any good.... lol...( and yet there was a huge crowd)  So we decided to spice things up a bit ( actually.. it was def. NOT my idea... but i was stupid and went along with it) They were playing in a gazebo so we all got up and started dancing around it like a bunch of maniacs. We went back to our seats and heard much laughter around us. So of course we didn't stop there. The next song we got up and marched around all playing invisible instruments with James conducting us. The next song we marched around with Andrew grinding an invisible organ and us all clapping like monkeys.. lol... by the end we had a big group of kids skipping around as well! When we went back to our seats an old guy called out " good show!... You guys Rock!" - haha! 

So to quote David I would say the trip was sta-mazing, but to quote Mark-John I would say " It was A-MAINE-ZING" haha.... (he thought it was so clever!)

Looking around at all the beautiful views was proof enough to me that God really does exist and he cares about us. There is NO way a big bang created all of that! 

Rachel AKA Chow

- If you want to hear specifics just ask and I can rave for hours!! ... lol

( for those of you that asked... notice Lobster wasn't in the list of highlights... LOL)

One of the nights i was in Canada i sat down and prayed for the Lord to lead me to some passage that would help me through the next day.... I opened to Psalm 54... It was just what i needed!

   ¹Save me, O God, by thy name, and judge me by thy strength.

   ²Hear my prayer, O God; give ear to the words of my mouth.

   ³For strangers are risen up against me, and oppressors seek after my soul: they have not set God before them. Selah.

   ⁴Behold, God is mine helper: the Lord is with them that uphold my soul.

   ⁵He shall reward evil unto mine enemies: cut them off in thy truth.

   ⁶I will freely sacrifice unto thee: I will praise thy name, O LORD; for it is good.

   ⁷For he hath delivered me out of all trouble: and mine eye hath seen his desire upon mine enemies.

Rachel

Going forward.

Life can only be understood backwards, 
but it must be lived forwards.

     - Soren Kierkegaard

I found this quote, and had to think over it for a while, but what's saying is so true! As we look back, the past things make sense, but they didn't seem to make any sense at the time, and things we are going through right now sometimes make no sense, but in the future we will understand it. So, the only way to live is to keep going forward and trust that God knows what's going on even if we are not sure. God has every thing under control!

Thats my thought for today ;)

Keep going forward!

Rachel

Outdoor Adventure:

Ok, so here’s another memory that will stay with me for a long time to come!
It was a hot summer day, and my cousin was here for her week long summer visit. I loved those times so much! We would rush around to get all of the garden and orchard work done so we could go swimming, play baseball, or such like. Well, this particular day we had finished all our work early and the boys decided to have Chris Read over. We spent the day having fun. When night fell, we decided since it was so hot inside, and it was gorgeous outside, that we would tote all of our sleeping bags outside and sleep under the stars. (Except the boys were wimps and set up a tent…) Us girls decided to have some fun and we told Chris that we were going to pull some kind of prank on him so he had better not go to sleep at all that night! We all headed to bed and Chrystal, Anna, and I were talking for a long time and then went inside to find something to use for our prank. We found some rotten apple juice in the pantry, and we pulled out the honey. We crept back to our sleeping bags and decided to wait until we were sure the boys were asleep before doing anything. Unfortunately we fell asleep and did not wake till morning. And since we couldn’t risk the rotten apple juice and the honey for fear they’d be awake, we proceeded to silently pull out all the stakes and pulled all the poles at once, collapsing their tent. That was not near as good as our original plan, and we were disappointed, but that was the best we could do at that point. After the boys untangled themselves from their blankets, the tent, and the poles, John informed us that Chris had been on edge all night long. There had been heat lightning in the distance and Chris had leaned over and whispered “is that the girls trick?” now as much as we would have liked to take credit to that, obviously we couldn’t, but we were very glad to know that we had succeeded in making Chris nervous all night long!

Make a Smilebox photobook

Cara Renee Cheek is Born!!!

http://secure.smilebox.com/ecom/openTheBox?sendevent=4f4449784d4463784d5877324d5449794d5445340d0a&sb=1

Destined for the Theatre!!

I was reminiscing the other day about all the great memories I have had with my cousin Anna, who happens to be only two days older than me. Chrystal, Anna, and I have always been the best of friends, so naturally we have many memories that are never to leave our house, however there are a few that I thought I would share. Some of our greatest times were when we were younger we had the tradition of putting on a new play every time she would come to visit. In all we did 8 productions:

All were original compositions except for Samantha (an American Girl)

The Mother of the Bride- was about a young woman (played by myself around the age of 8…) who was getting married (to my brother john!!!) - my outfit included a nightgown for the wedding dress and a slip for my veil! - Jordan played the part of the Preacher and Chrystal was a bridesmaid. Now this all sounds sweet, but of course there had to be a twist.... her mother was psychotic!!!! (Anna played this part - quite well I might add) during the "Wedding" the mother was interrupting and being a royal pain! At one point she threw her purse up into the air and it hit the whirling fan, and dozens of pennies went flying in all directions. She did a great many other things as well, but it would take to much time to explain, but I think you get the point! (It was obviously a comedy!)

Heidi- I am sure most know the story of Heidi, so I won’t go into detail about that, but instead of being a cute, touching story, it ended up being more of a tragedy! Cast: Rachel: Heidi, Anna: Clara, Chrystal: Rottenmeier, John: Grandfather. We had not had much time to rehearse so at times we had to add lib. But still we all knew the story, so it shouldn’t have been that bad right? Wrong!!!!! I am never good at coming up with things at the top of my head, so whenever I wasn’t sure what was next I would go “up to my loft” and go to sleep, leaving the others to fill in the awkward silence. Another tragic mishap was that we had no wheelchair for “Clara”. During rehearsal we had just skipped the parts where “Clara” had to be moved, and told John that during the performance we would just have him pick “Clara” up in the Chair and move her to the desired spot. What we forgot to take into account was that John’s nickname wasn’t “Shorty” for no reason! When the time came to move “Clara”, John struggled to move the chair…. It wouldn’t budge! So basically, “Clara” was miraculously healed more than once during the play!!!! 

Samantha (the American girl) – the odd thing about this play was that it actually turned out okay!!! This was an outdoor performance complete with spotlights, and two different sets. Cast: Anna: Samantha, Chrystal: Grandmary, Rachel: Nellie, Jordan: Eddie, John: Uncle Gard. The only bad review we got was from my grandma saying “this is the worst play yet!!! (Her reasoning was that she was freezing, and could not hear a word we were saying…. - I think she was complaining about the sound because this was Jordan's first performance and he was quite scared... lets just say he didn't make a very intimidating Eddie ;)

Who Killed the Cook? – In order to enhance business, and avoid bad reviews we decided to make our seating more comfortable. The Audience sat inside our dining room and watched through the open glass doors leading to the deck that we used as our stage. Cast: John: the King, Chrystal: the Queen, Rachel: the Princess, Anna: The cook, Jordan the Cooks help. This script was Chrystal’s work of genius, (it was a regular Agatha Christie! She made each character look like a suspect)….if only she had remembered to follow her own script and not give the plot away by wearing the light peach dress when the lights where off and she murdered the cook (Anna). At intermission we handed out slips where the audience was to write who they thought killed the cook. We were surprised to see that everyone had written down the Queen! We didn’t realize until later that Chrystal had forgotten to slip on the dark robe that was to hide her identity. Our other mistake was to use Anna as the detective after she had just died as the cook! When she interrogated Chrystal she immediately accused Chrystal of the crime saying “I KNOW YOU KILLED ME!!!!” Also, the sad realization that people were only coming to our plays because we promised snacks came when my grandma kept asking “where is my popcorn?... I want popcorn!!!” Right in the middle of the play!


Count your Blessings – We wrote this one for our traditional family thanksgiving get-together. The script originally included parts for the boys, but after much consideration we decided that this play shouldn’t be ruined by their stupidity (we also knew we had to prove that we were better than the popcorn was!). So, we cut them out. In the end Chrystal, Anna, and I were the only ones on cast. Plot: the three of us were sisters, and also orphans, who were very poor. Through all the happenings we learn to be thankful no matter what life throws our way. It had such a perfect story line, such a perfect cast, and such perfect props…. But of course nothing ever goes quite the way you planned it! At the very end I (the youngest of the orphans) had fallen down some stairs and had injured my leg. The play was to close with me in the hospital in great spirits saying “count your blessings”…. but… for some reason or another Chrystal decided she didn’t like that ending and she started adding lib. Anna and I were very unsure about what to do, and the end turned out to be a flop because all of us were fumbling for words. (In truth the play was great if people could just forget the last scene!)


The Perfect Date – this play was written the next thanksgiving. It was already Thanksgiving Day and we had to pull something together fast, but we knew that my brothers were awful at that... so we pulled over my cousins Adam Russ and Brianna. We wrote up a play and that night we performed our 6th masterpiece. Cast: Adam: Dad, Chrystal: Candy, Anna: Lollipop, Rachel: Miss Chow, Brianna: Miss Abby Normal. Plot: Adam a.k.a. “the man who dunks the Doughnuts”. Was the hard working father of Candy and Lollipop. He works at Dunkin Doughnuts (hence his line “I’m the man who dunks the Doughnuts” – said in an Eyeore’s voice) His loving daughters realize that ever since their mother had died their father had been in depression. Wanting to bring him out of it they concoct a plan to bring him happiness: a wife. Each sets out to find their dad the perfect date. Each girl finds a different woman for their father to meet… the girls realize too late that they had both set up the dates at the exact same times. First they greet Miss Chow and show her to the dining room. Then they greet Miss Abby Normal and show her to the Kitchen. The night goes on with the girls ushering their Dad back and forth between the two rooms using lines like “Dad, don’t you need to use the restroom?” He responded with an “I don’t think so” they reply “oh yes you do … NOW!” The ending reveals that “It’s better to want something you don’t have than to have something you don’t want.” (To quote my brother David) – In other words they live happily ever after as a content family of three.




College Life – This work of art was never actually produced in front of an audience. It was written, and rehearsed, but it was never to be put on the stage. Nevertheless a masterpiece of its own! Cast: Chrystal: Rita-Book, Anna: Sarah-Castic, Rachel: Abby Normal. This was truly comedy at its best!!! Plot: The first semester at college was bound to be eventful when the first act opens to three roommates gathering to introduce themselves… The names say it all… Sarah-Castic with her witty lines, Rita-book always in the corner curled up with her studies, and Abby-Normal with those red snake skin boots she even wore to bed! To say the least the three girls drove each other crazy! Many events happen that cause Abby-Normal to realize she cannot go on like this. She asks to be moved to another room, gathers all her luggage and rushes to her new dorm, in excitement of getting away from those wacky roommates. She swings the door open and is hit with an even bigger shock than expected… There stands the spitting image of Rita-Book, only this Rita is sporting a cows hide vest, whopping shoes, and chewing a huge wad of gum. The girl gives a goofy smile thrusts out her hand and introduces herself: Rita-Ardo. (Rita-Books Cousin)



A Play within a Play – This playwright was the best we had accomplished in our whole career (since it was to be our debut), however our dreams came crashing to the ground when John, Jordan, and Mark retired from the business of acting. (in reality, they were too mature *chicken* to perform ) Cast: (what we had planned anyways) John: Jared (later to become the Villain), Chrystal: Christine (and announcer), Rachel: Lisa (later to become Princess Arianna), Anna: Katelyn (later to become Lady Melissa), Jordan: Zach (later to become Sir Loves-a-Lot), Mark: Bert (later to become the court Jester). Plot: the first act opens to Katelyn and Lisa passing a sign that says an acting competition will be held at the town square and the winning group will receive a prize of $10,000. They decide that they will do it. They rush over to tell the rest of their friends and to come up with something to act. They have trouble agreeing on the topic however. Katelyn wants a romance, Zach wants a sports theme, Bert wants a freak show, Lisa doesn’t care as long as she gets to wear a gorgeous dress, and Jared thinks the whole thing is stupid but he needs money. After much arguing they decide to call Christine a writer and they ask her to come up with something. She finds a way to add everyone’s ideas into one Skit. The next act opens to the announcer calling up the group from Lancaster County. The skit has Lisa dressed up as a princess, her lady in waiting Melissa finds her true love when Sir loves-a-lot saves her from a Villain who is trying to kidnap her, later the Jester comes and does a freak show for the princess. The princess marries the jester and Lady Melissa marries Sir loves-a-lot. Their group wins the Prize money. One of the many great lines was after Sir loves-a-lot rescues Melissa she runs into his arms and knocks him over. Grunting heavily he moans.. “Why couldn’t you do that to the villain and save me the trouble? (I had a hard time getting the whole plot into writing because it is very complicated, and I left out a ton, but I think I got the main idea of it down anyways….)


So as you can see we have had a great career as home entertainers! But let me tell you, we spent a lot of time in those productions! It took many nights out in the tent writing up the playwrights and practicing every spare moment… even if the audience didn’t like our performances we had sooooo much fun and we have a great many memories that we will always be able to laugh at!

Psalm 130....

During our Russian prayer meeting (at our "girls only" valentines party) Angela shared a verse and I underlined it in my Bible. I thought of it again yesterday and decided to look it up and read the whole chapter. I loved it!!! So, I thought I'd share it with you all too!

1Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O LORD.
2Lord, hear my voice: let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications.
3If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?
4But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared.
5I wait for the LORD, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope.
6My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning: I say, more than they that watch for the morning.
7Let Israel hope in the LORD: for with the LORD there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption.
8And he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities.

Those couple verses in yellow were so amazing! I liked verse 3 (thats the one Angela shared)... We think we are so great, but in reality if God were to look at us for our works than we would not even stand a chance for Heaven, but thankfully, when God looks at us He sees Christ (not us) if we are saved! And then it says that God forgives so that He will be feared. It's amazing to think that God is showing himself strong when He forgives us. And then verse 5 is another great verse. Even when we see no evidence that God is at work, we can be sure that his plan is working out for our better! We need to stay in the Word, and keep our eyes fixed on him!
I pray that you all are keeping on keeping on!
In Christ,
Rachel