Some sermons I have appreciated a great deal are:

Pst. Mark Powell, Easley, SC, Cov. RBC. "Luther's Hymn", Ps. 46: http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=121310143483

Dr. Joseph Bartosch, Easley, SC, Cov. RBC, "Sorrow is Better Than Laughter for by the Saddeness of the Countenance the Heart is Made Better", Ecc. 7:2-3:

http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=61007223237

Pst. Bill Hughes, Coconut Creek, FL, Imm. RBC. a series about Ruth at a conference in Sacramento.

Pst. Stu Johnston, "Elisha and the Shunammite Woman": http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=7510146151

I also love anything related to art and beauty, cooking, crafts, homemaking, children, learning new things (especially new outdoor adventures I haven't yet tried), teaching, or reading (especially when I can help young people make connections with what they read or watch to the things of God). Right now at school I'm teaching a unit on the elementary physics related to motion and flight and it's a blast thinking of fun things for them to try and to write about so they can make connections. I'm constantly seeing connections between what I get to teach and to problem solving biblically and wish with all my heart I could (and sometimes I do) teach more about these things ... but I do work in a public school so I need to be careful. Still, some things just come up and what do you know? Then it becomes legal. I know my way around a loop-hole when it comes to promoting righteousness. Now if only I could kill my own personal darlings and be more holy myself on a personal level.

I was invited to a Vacation Bible School when I was eight and God captured my heart. I wasn't permitted to go to church as a child so I read the Bible in secret. "Deep calls to deep", rigiht? My parents are wonderful people but not believers. My dad still believes the Native American Indians got it right and that's exactly what I would believe today, too, if it were not for God's word and how He's revealed Himself to me every day since that first VBS meeting.

This mght sound foreign to some of you but the rule of the house I grew up in was that when you are 18 you are on your own (though my family has always been highly supported me). They are truly generous. In fact, I just saw them this week and dad flipped me some gas money. Isn't that sweet? I'm in my 40's yet he still asked me, "How's your car, Sue-Sue?" Gotta love it!

When I did move out, I used a phonebook to find my first church family... if you want to know more, ask me. Want to hear where I've planted my theological flag? Ask. How did I put myself through college? That's less relevant but interesting nonethe-less. How many times did I take a certain Math course in order to pass? What strange and funny places have I had to work? How many packages of Ramon noodles I ate to survive and how I started a national organization that enabled me to fly all around the country on someone else's dime, first class, being elected nationally for something, representing thousands, speaking in front of tens of thousands, and vomiting? Ask. Ask how the Rainbow Coalition has taken over my town. Ask what it's like to know God has singled you out to run an underground school system. God is weird. I would have never planned this life. Sngle, never married, no kids. Yet, I have known hundreds of children. Educational slaves. Ask me why a guy like Glenn Beck would LOVE to get ahold of my story and how my only reply would HAVE to be: WAIT. God's doing something. I'm just along for the ride. It's not about me. He's doing something. Yes. It's hard. It's like a Frank Peretti novel around here sometimes but ... I rest. I rest in my sovereign Lord whose heart I trust even when I have no clue what's going on. I can trust THAT heart. It makes me fearless!

I HAVE HAD AND AM HAVING THE MOST AMAZING LIFE. Some of it has been breathtakingly spectacular and some (more recently) excruciatingly puzzling. There have been near disasters averted with a mere question. Luck? No. Jesus has been a swashbuckling hero saving me again and again from the world, from myself and from the devil. You? Oh, brother, I'm only your girl if you are ready to go out there and rescue some lives...better yet, I trust you are already praying to be doing that right now anyway!

Maybe I'll write a book about my life someday except I'm still busy living it. I know the ending .at least .. the VERY end ... well, not the very VERY end...you know what I mean, right? It's a happy ending, my story. And what about yours? Having doubts about being blessed in this lfe, Brotheri? Well, just send me a "hello" because there's only an "o" between "hell" and "hello". ... that was cheezy. I know. But, if it was TOO cheezy, maybe I nacho cheese.

What I meant to say was that just because you send me an email doesn't mean... well. I'm not the type to assume anything. I regularly guard my heart. I trust it doesn't offend you when I say I consider you as a brother only.

"How is my walk these days"? Having a vigorous prayer life and an extended time in God's word is more essential to me than breathing. How is my walk these days? God isn't just real to me. I know Him personally. He identifies Himself with a linking verb and then links Himself directly to me through everything, absoIutely everything. I know Him well. That sounds prideful but He's the one who revealed Himself to me and He hasn't been shy about it. I boast only in that He did that for me.

Calvin was right. Our hearts are indeed idol making factories.

I have had personal reactions to every one of those truths. I know I still struggle with Total Depravity because there are times I despair to think someone will go to hell. I beg God that no one I know or come in contact with will but I can get a little incredulous sometimes thinking thoughts that reveal that I just don't want to believe it fully. Thankfully, He reminds me and teaches with me in such loving ways. God is more firm with me these days than He was when I was younger, though.

I have no doubt about them, though. The fact that He chose some for His own when others are not, that He died for some and not others is my life focus. The Atonement IS A BIG DEAL ... and what a deal. It constantly stirs up my sense of love for God and makes me a true War Horse, DV, for His glory.

I'm counting on the fact that because His grace continues to be irresistible to me that when I speak His words they are efficacious to the hearer for God's purposes.

And perseverance... oh Brother. Oh my Brother in Christ ... I cry right now typing here as I can't even put into words how God has proven Himself through this doctrine. He has also tested me ... my greatest fears ... WHAT A HEALER. "I will never leave you nor forsake you".

"Thine eye diffused a quickening ray—
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;
My chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.

Do I have a quiet time? Oh yes.

I read an Old Testament passage, a New Testament passage, two Psalms, a section of Proverbs (to match the date), and a portion of the Gospels in the mornings. I appreciate Spurgeon's writings and Henry Scudder's as well.

Jesus is my favorite "Biblical Character" however to use the word "character" made me cringe when Jesus is a real person and fully alive. To say all that He is to me would take every last square inch of my profile.

Ruth has meant a lot to me as have Esther and Nehemiah.

I see Ruth as being noble and brave not for just leaving her country, for embracing the Lord and for going home with Naomi but also for lying at the feet of Boaz, declaring to her kinsman, "I am in need".

I see Esther as being divinely placed and that encourages me for I know God has placed me here where I am right now. I may have a very high calling teaching already but there's more to it than that as a Christian who works in the public schools. I cannot openly speak about the mysteries of God that I see in the public schools. I learned as a child at home with unconverted family not to cast my pearls before swine, but little children are not swine. They might be little sinners but they are precious and pliable. Jesus loves them, as do I. Therefore, I am a missionary, a Harriet Tubman and every secret prayer shared with a needy mommy or a curious little boy who asks honest questions truly emboldens me. I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God. This is indeed war, gentlemen. I don't have time for boys here on this site. I want a soldier. If you know what it is to live in a spiritual china and be fully alive in this war, Brother, I might be your Molly Pitcher.

Another favorite "character" is Nehemiah. Some summers ago I was building a program for a rescue mission and I was reading Nehemiah at the time. I believe God used the readings of each day coupled with the events of the day to direct and lead me to develop that program for His glory. When I look back at that work I'm humbled because I know I had more than just God's help. He did it. I was just ... along for the ride, I suppose. These kinds of daily connections with God in and through His word remain. I know what it is to "hear" and "follow" my Maker's voice.

http://www.hymnal.net/hymn.php/nt/708

I have struggled with being content but my work keeps me so busy that I have to focus on the task at hand. God's given me much to do. I'm grateful for that. It keeps me out of trouble.

I think they'd say I'm:

• Self controlled
• Hospitable
• Compassionate
• Patient

1. I want to be the holiest a redeemed person can possibly!!

2.I want to love others well (to over look much and with grace and also to teach folks by example and using His word as much as possible). Doing this (pointing others to God or noticing God in the little things) THRILLS me!

3. I want my work and life to honor God above all else. I like finding ways to add joy to the lives of others as this is what makes me the happiest and what I'm most passionate about above all.

1. The Lord's Day

2. Family;

3. Fresh Air and quiet time to walk and think outside ...a swim or run... any time when I can work out. I praise God with the deepest sense of gratitute I have when I can get any extra of these times in. If you find me doing something outside where it's beautiful out, no matter the weather, you'll see my biggest smiles of all!

I admire people who know God's word well ... it's not so much what one thinks. It's what God thinks that really matters to me.

A sense of humor is important. I laugh easily. I cry easily, too. Animals and children are freakishly attracted to me. Bad boys seem to be drawn in from time to time but I am the official Ice Princess, dontchaknow? They catch on quickly. They've got the wrong girl.

If you can see the face of the Lord in the poor, you'll be more attractive to me. At the same time, I do want to be with an educated man who loves to learn. If you read aloud to me ... hubba hubba. If you write ...I'll ... well. Never mind. I do have red pens and I know how to use them.

Having a missionary's heart is the KEY to mine.

God gave me my very own Edith and Francis Schaeffer and they are now living in Owensboro, Kentucky. I miss them but we visit one another every now again. I strive to be my own version of an Edith, I suppose: art, beauty, hospitality, meeting people right where they are, loving them as they are, believing great things, expecting great things, trusting in God's provision, answering honest questions with Biblical answers, the Gospel, KNOWING Christ personally.

Hymn #101 (from the Trinity Hymnal Baptist version)

“My song forever shall record

The tender mercies of the Lord;

Thy faithfulness will I proclaim,

And every age shall know Thy Name.”

3. “Behold God’s truth and grace displayed,

For He has faithful covenant made,

And He has sworn that David’s Son

Shall ever sit upon his throne.”

"Oh the deep, deep, love of Jesus..."

"Could we with ink the ocean fill, And were the skies of parchment made, Were every stalk on earth a quill, And every man a scribe by trade, To write the love of God above, Would drain the ocean dry. Nor could the scroll contain the whole, Though stretched from sky to sky."

"The plan in th heart of a man is like deep water, but a man of understanding draws it out."

"Those who, when they are full, enjoy God in all,
When they are empty and impoverished, enjoy all in God."
- Matthew Henry

"'Sing, O barren woman, you who never bore a child; burst into song, shout for joy, you who were never in labor; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband,' says the LORD."

I"m a public school teacher as I mentioned in a rainbow coalition flag waving, small town without a Reformed Baptist Church. I have children with "two mommies" and those who can't read (even though they are nearly teenagers) in my classroom right now. I have had many children who speak very little English over the years and many, many more who are so poor they barely have food to eat. I've seen "homes" where black mold has eaten the floor all the way through so that snow comes in and surrounds a baby's crib. I know how to ask hard questions. Teaching is not for wimps. Meekness takes some real fortitude, men. You know the phrase "quit yourselves like men" right? How about "Ladies, be quit by God". He gave me a Sword and ... and ... and ... wanna see me use it? Oh, how I wish I had every chapter and verse memorized for I need it all. I've been here in this town for 21 years. I'm really lonely but these are my "people". If Lottie Moon can establish churches all over China, why can't I here in my town, my own spiritual china where God has planted me?

I want to be a "healer" of sorts. This is my prayer: Isaiah 50:4. (lots of bruised reeds out there) lots

My life long goals are to honor God and love others well. China? Mexico? I'm game. I'm probably not ready but "china" with a lowercase "c" is right in my own back yard as is "mexico" with a little "m". I'm content either way. [God, make me ready for whatever]. There just might be a whole lot of spiritual popcorn in these quotes:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0441773/quotes ... what do you think?

I enjoy making jewelry.

My work as a school teacher is already more than a full time job.

I like to write.

I'm a home-town missions-minded kind of woman so I don't think of my time as leisure time.

I'd love to see a solidly biblical church started here in South Haven!!! Does your church train men? Do you have any extra men prepared to preach, families equipped to teach... given to hospitality? I know you RB churches, full of amazing families. I want to kidnap a few of your retired pastors who are out and about doing the speaking circuit... Oh, just send us your worst man. We'll take him.

I was born in Michigan. I went to California once for my one and only singles conference. My brother lives in San Diego so I visited him that month. I went to Owensboro for a Missions Conference ...

I'm not very well traveled, huh? I'd like to be. Who wouldn't? Then again, the needs here are so great and that's where my heart is. I'm a homebody. Sort of. For a woman with as adventuresome as I am deep down ... I don't actually get out that much. If I didn't have to work and could stay at home all day ... well ... how marvelous. I'd fill my home with kids. I'd adopt. I've considered starting a boarding school for girls actually. A foster care, maybe. I still might.

cleaning the church

getting to know the families of my students

having company over on the Lord's Day

sharing books, sermons and various writings with whomever, wherever

giving rides to local women without transportation

finding resources and free stuff for folks in need: I'm a "master of finding free stuff"

visiting friends

practicing hospitality

ice skating, skiing, snowmobiling, walking along the beach of Lake Michigan (which is only 3 miles from my cottage), antiquing, listening to the music performances of the young people in my life, writing (editing, rewriting, thinking through writing), organizing things ... I love to organize and clean, croquet, plan presents for others, cook presents for others... so many things.

Must see movies on Netflix for friends on this site:

Luther (2003)

One Night with the King (2006)

"John Wycliffe: The Morning Star" (1984)

"John Hus" (1977) *I haven't seen this one personally but I've heard it's excellent - it came in the mail but it wasn't the right time to watch it - the idea of burning at the stake seemed so real ... well ... I'm a little nuts, so... anyway, I couldn't watch it

"Martin Luther" (1953) - there are other versions on Netflix about Luther, too

"The Radicals" (1990) *my favorite at the moment ... except the end, of course

"God's Outlaw" (1986)

"Candle in the Dark" (1998) *I'm not so sure I love what happened to his wife, though ...

"The Inn of Sixth Happiness" (1958)

"China Cry" (1990)

*Someone suggested I add WHY I recommended those movies thinking it would help you get to know me better. Briefly, I recommend them because they've inspired me. I need inspiration throughout the week. Don't you? There are times when I feel like the world, the flesh and the devil are closer to me than anyone else (except God). Genesis 3 feels like a close personal friend named "Jenny". Life is hard and I'm grateful for works like those listed above (even when they are poorly made) because they inspire me to see that fighting the good fight, right here, right now is a great work that honors God.