Tita Moments

19 My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, 20 for man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. James 1:19-20


Those of us reading this blog have all recently endured 4 sequential deaths since May and yesterday we found out that Bob’s father has gone to join Rosalie in Heaven only after 30 plus days of her passing. This makes 5 deaths in 4 months within our extended family. Tough summer to say the least!

It would be easy to be angry at G-d and question his existence because of all the tough stuff we have had to endure. James warns of that in the passage above. We need to listen to the voice of G-d calling us to be his servants! Time is too short to be angry.

As each of us ponder the meaning of each death, I can’t get over the number of times I want to call Tita and tell her how I feel about all of this. Unfortunately she was one of the casualties of this dreadful summer. This is a hard time!

I want to call her and tell her about Philip’s new dorm and school, Sarah’s goal of hitting 4.0 this semester and Lizzy’s future driving ( even in her car). As hard as this is, I have found that we have circled the wagons and depend on each other more than we ever have before. Whether it is by phone or email we are communicating better as a family than we ever have before!

What a huge breakthrough this is for us. It sucks that so many people have had to go be with the Lord for us to do this but G-d works in very mysterious ways to say the least. His Will is what we need to seek regardless of the impact to us.

My heart goes out to Bob as he faces another parent being gone but I hope he knows how much we care about him and that we are here for him.

I know each of you have your “Tita Moments” as I do and in some instances breakdown while openly sobbing in grief and I hope you do because that is the cleanest part of recovery. If we didn’t mourn and openly cry then I would question what we are about!

Wednesday brings another, and I hope the last, death for us for a long time. Regardless, we must acknowledge that G-d is in control and loves us beyond all measure!

Come Father and envelope us in your Grace and hold us close to Your bosom as we mourn our loved ones who have gone ahead of us to your Heavenly Kingdom. Amen


Peace be to all.

Time is Short

35"Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, 36 like men waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him. 37 It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. I tell you the truth, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them. 38 It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the second or third watch of the night. 39 But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. 40 You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him." Luke 12:35-40


The passage above directs us to expect our LORD at any time! He directs us to prepare for his return. What does being watchful entail? What, as believers, should we do as we wait? What does the job description of watchman include?

These are normal questions that we ask ourselves everyday. Knowing expectations of any task makes it easier to excel if we are willing to do the work to “get’ur done.” Being American workers we expect evaluations of our job performance at least once a year and we hope for a raise based on our contribution to the success of the organization.

But how do we do this in the Spiritual realm? How do we “stand-ready” for the coming of the LORD? I think the passage above is very clear on what we are supposed to do and I believe it stares modern “don’t worry, be happy” theology in the face.

There is a distinct pabulum being preached that we do not need to prepare either spiritually or physically for the coming trouble ahead. Our primary media outlets minimize bad spots and endlessly spew the need for us to spend our earnings on things that our fellow citizens are OCDing about. We are bombarded by messages that intimate that “if you don’t have the latest, you are the latest!”

So what does waiting really cause us to do? I think the answer is being prepared for most eventualities. Whether we are able to withstand a hurricane, electrical outage or a full blown terrorist act that changes the way we look at freedom, economics and our own futures; regardless of the situation we need to be prepared to care for our immediate and extended families.

Most readers of this simple blog know that I have embraced the preparedness movement with vigor. The stigma of this is the fact that most outsiders think that I believe in the soon end of world as depicted as Armageddon in the Bible. WRONG. I believe that we are approaching the end of the world as we now know it in America. This is not a loss of hope or belief in an omnipotent G-D who loves us, but simply a cause and effect response to our own sinfulness. I, as you, am one of the perpetrators of this sin.

Recognizing that G-D forgives us for all of our past, present and future sins through the Blood of Jesus Christ, we must move ahead as children of a loving G-d to prepare.

Time is short! We must accomplish the following in short order collectively to be steadfast watchmen:
1. Reaffirm our Faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of our lives and families.
2. Submit to baptism and affirm our faith in Him if we haven’t done so already.
3. Help each other to grow in the Lord.
4 .Develop a plan to utilize our individual skills in a “Worst Case” scenario that changes the way we view our country .
5. Develop a family retreat to flee to in the event of catastrophe.
6..Build charity into our preparations to help our brothers and sisters that haven’t been able to prepare.

This blog entry has been a long time coming and there is much to do in a quick period of time.

We must work together to accomplish heavy goals because time is very short!

Peace to All.

Please Pray for Kim

I am asking for everybody to pray for my friend Kim Banner Storm. She had a baby on
July 4, 2007 and has been hospitalized with a major breast infection that has been antibiotic resistent the last 3 days. She has been very sick with 104 degree fevers and they are trying to get the infection under control. I thought this would be a good way to get a prayer circle going. Thanks for your help, Manda

Contentment in All Things

4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:4-7

Anxiety is rampant in America. Worries about the stock market, terrorism, the devaluing dollar and a litany of other unnerving issues make headlines on 24/7 cable news networks. It is difficult to avoid but how should we react to it when we do.

Me, I prepare for ways to overcome these potential crises. I do this in three ways:

· Solid storehouse of foods and water to withstand a sustained interruption of normal services.

· Keep some cash around in case the ATM and credit card machines don’t work.

· Most importantly, I build on my personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Relying on Him to guide me in the other two efforts above.

The writer of Philippians has it right. We must be ready to be content in any circumstances. Regardless of any preparation, life has a way of throwing a curve ball at you. It is our responses to these curves that separate the believer from those who rely on Man to sustain them.

As we fondly mull over our memories of Tita, we all should recognize that she always knew that everything would work out okay. I know that there was plenty of anxiety over money, bills and enough time for everything. But in the end she let go and let God help her through it all. Most times that I saw her, she appeared to be content in her situation.

She had a strong prayer life, was thankful for what she did have and was able to find peace. In the end, God granted her eternal peace starting at the place she loved most – outside on her back porch.

We should each find our own “back porch” and go there often to pray and praise God regardless of our situation!

Hello Everyone

I found this picture and thought I'd share it with everyone.

My mom left it to me to figure out how to contribute to the blog.

My mom that previously checked her email maybe twice a day has now become an obsessive compulsive blog-checking monster.

i have you guys to blame for that!

just kidding---I think this is a great idea.

Love you guys!

-SAM-

The Coming Days

Ephesians 4:1-6

1. As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 2. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. 4. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called— 5. one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6.one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

Time is very short and there is so much to do! We have a lot of baptisms to complete, forgiveness to ask and time to spend with each other before the coming days are fulfilled.

This all sounds so difficult to complete but one Saturday & Sunday will do it. During the ceremony for Rosalie it dawned on me that we have just begun our journey of renewed Faith.

Tita and I discussed (as most of you did) the need to draw close to The Lord because the times are changing. Didi and I talked about it while languishing in the sun between the death and burial of Tita. The answer is always the same: Jesus is Lord and we need to acknowledge that!

Collectively we have endured four deaths within the last 60 days. That is a lot of death for one family regardless of your unit of measure. But what do all these deaths mean? What can we gain from the experience?

The key lesson that continues to permeate my Spirit is that we must live in the present. We must embrace every day as our last and love strongly the folks that we hold dear. But what does “Love Strongly” mean?

It means “loving completely without complete understanding!” Tita had many faults as we all do but she did understand the value of unconditional love. We each found ways to disagree with her but through it all she always found a way to love us. It took some growth on her part and some of our own but we always managed to meet in the middle.

I think that is what Love becomes: the ability to forget self and recognize the face of God in others without sacrificing our beliefs and morals.

Each day I want to pick up the phone and call Tita to rave about a particular topic but I now spread the burden across many folks instead. The wheel and spokes that we embraced in the past with Tita has now become a wide area network of love and understanding previously not realized. Let us all embrace the change and see the fruit of our efforts.

The pictures in the previous post are only the beginning of a family renewed by tragedy.

Peace to All.

The Tita Tailgate

Here are the photos from the "Tita Tailgate" in Navasota, Texas. As you can see, the Powell and Baylor Plots were awash in a Sea of Burnt Orange. I truly believe that Mom, Daddy Rufe, Mimi and the rest of the family were right there with us enjoying the celebration and we in turn were letting them know that everything is going to be alright.

"Perhaps they are not stars, but rather openings in heaven where the love of our lost ones pours through and shines down upon us to let us know they are happy" -Eskimo Proverb