Hodge-Podge

Happy Monday All-

Hope your weekend was full of safe fun and that you remembered to brush your teeth after all the candy :)

Just a warning, this post is going to be a hodge-podge of this and that. Oh, to say southern sayings.....makes me feel like I am back home......Georgia home that is. I have to remember to clarify. I am trying to make a great effort to only call "new house" (as Sam says), home. Maybe that will cut down on the, "Doe Home. Where are you, Sam? Home. Doe Home, Georgia." conversation that I have billions of times a day. However, since I have it with a cute Monkey boy (that is wearing a shirt today that says "Big Trouble comes in Small Packages") I guess it isn't all that bad.

Speaking of Georgia home, we are loving the southern sun God sent to us. We had a great weekend with the beautiful weather. Who said that fall in MN was cold? It is 70 degrees today. Don't look at our 10 day forecast, though. We have a chance on snow showers on both Friday and Monday. We went to the park after Maddie had school today to try and soak in as much of that southern sun as possible.

This weekend our church....seems strange to say that an not mean NFBC. No, we haven't joined yet....we like to take our time joining churches. Last time, we only joined a few weeks before Maddie made her appearance into this world. Seeing that there aren't any more babies on our horizon....it maybe a long time (wong time, as Sam says) before we join. Anyhoo, back to what I started to say/type......this weekend at Grace Church, there was the annual Missions Festival.

Missionaries, Grace sponsored, from both the US and abroad, came to join in and share their testimonies. There was a food festival on Saturday night. We didn't go to that, but took the kids to the time of Praise and Worship after. It was complete with a 300 person (they said youth....but they didn't all look youthy to me) choir and a cool Parade of Flags (lots and lots of flags).

One of the missionaries to speak was a pastor in Baghdad, Iraq. His testimony was incredible. He has been imprisoned by Saddam's men, beaten, and his family threatened....just for worshipping the Lord. He isn't a military man, wasn't plotting to take over the country....just wanted to spread Christianity to those who were going to hell otherwise.

I wish that we could broadcast it all over the US, for it highlighted the liberation of Christians that came from US invasion. Weapons of mass destruction aside, if it weren't for the war Christians in Iraq would still be persecuted, killed, and underground. Since the invasion 4o churches have opened in Iraq. The missionary we heard is pastor of a church called "Jesus is the Light of the World". That is the name printed HUGE to display for all the world see.

The pastor also said that everyone in Baghdad called it the "capital of terrorism". I have no idea if "weapons of mass destruction" existed or not. What I do know is that the people of Iraq were living under a terrible ruler, in a country full of terrorists and without the comfort of worshipping around other Christian people. It was nice to hear all the good that we were doing in Iraq, instead of hearing all the negative surrounding that situation.

Okay, enough about my soap box. I hope that everyone has a wonderful day and is able to go and vote tomorrow.....I wasn't going to say anything about who I hope you vote for....but this is MY blog, by golly. So if I offend you by saying that I hope you vote McCain, then well...so be it. That's the great thing about living in the US of A, the whole freedom of speech thing.

Seriously, I hope the weather is nice where you are and that you have a great week!!!!