"Marvelous Lovingkindness"

                                             Great Smoky Mountains

"Marvelous Lovingkindness." Psalm 17:7

Dear Praying Friends and Family,

   Your prayers and kind words for John Mac this week when he took the MCAT were such a blessing to me and to him...and to all those his life will affect down through the years whichever way the LORD directs his life.  Thank you so much for your love and encouragement and prayers.  

        "I strongly suspect that if we saw all the difference even the tiniest of our prayers make, and all the people those little prayers were destined to affect, and all the consequences of those prayers down through the centuries, we would be so paralyzed with awe at the power of prayer that we would be unable to get up off our knees for the rest of our lives."  Peter Kraft, professor Boston College."

     

   

     Johnny and I are celebrating our 28th Wedding Anniversary today!  I praise the LORD for HIS marvelous lovingkindness to us and our family in those 28 years and thank HIM for my wonderful husband . I am so blessed by his laying down his life for me, for us, day after day, week after week to love us, lead us in the ways of our LORD, and provide our needs.

      I have truly missed writing you all the past couple of weeks.  I hope that you have missed me:).  GOD has certainly given me the thoughts each week, but the door wasn't opened for me to sit down and write those thoughts down.   Charles Spurgeon's Morning and Evening  he reminds us how important it is to tell the good things GOD has done for our souls and testify to what we have seen:

Evening: The Combined Witness

"And they rose up the same hour, and returned Jerusalem...and they told what things were done in the way, and how He was known of them."
--Luke 24:33,35

When the two disciples had reached Emmaus, and were refreshing themselves at the evening meal, the mysterious stranger who had so enchanted them upon the road, took bread and brake it, made Himself known to them, and then vanished out of their sight. They had constrained Him to abide with them, because the day was far spent; but now, although it was much later, their love was a lamp to their feet, yea, wings also; they forgot the darkness, their weariness was all gone, and forthwith they journeyed back the threescore furlongs to tell the gladsome news of a risen Lord, who had appeared to them by the way. They reached the Christians in Jerusalem, and were received by a burst of joyful news before they could tell their own tale. These early Christians were all on fire to speak of Christ's resurrection, and to proclaim what they knew of the Lord; they made common property of their experiences. This evening let their example impress us deeply. We too must bear our witness concerning Jesus. John's account of the sepulchre needed to be supplemented by Peter; and Mary could speak of something further still; combined, we have a full testimony from which nothing can be spared.

We have each of us peculiar gifts and special manifestations; but the one object God has in view is the perfecting of the whole body of Christ. We must, therefore, bring our spiritual possessions and lay them at the apostle's feet, and make distribution unto all of what God has given to us. Keep back no part of the precious truth, but speak what you know, and testify what you have seen. Let not the toil or darkness, or possible unbelief of your friends, weigh one moment in the scale. Up, and be marching to the place of duty, and there tell what great things God has shown to your soul.

    We all can testify to HIS lovingkindness in our lives over and over and over...even those who have lost homes  in these terrible tornadoes testify of HIS goodness and lovingkindness:

    http://www.usatoday.com/weather/storms/tornadoes/2011-05-24-oklahoma-storms_n.htm

    I am so thankful that the huge storms in the DFW  area did not do more damage than they did...so many of you, my dear friends live out there and we were praying for ya'll Tuesday night...thank you, LORD for your mercy and lovingkindness to spare that area and so many of you who live out there.

     A couple of weeks ago, I had the privilege of attending a  medical seminar in Duluth, Georgia..  Originally, Johnny and I had planned to go together and he would hang out at the hotel, while I went to the seminar. But, GOD had another plan. One of those unexpected blessed plans was that, Hannah Beth got to come home for the summer!   We  thought she was only going to be home for a brief few days during the time I was going to be in Georgia.  Just the Wednesday before I left on Friday she found out she could come home and take her anatomy classes at our local junior college.  Thank you,  LORD for YOUR marvelous lovingkindness.  GOD lavished HIS love upon me from start to finish  the weekend of the conference, getting 11 year old Maggie Carpenter and I to  Georgia safely where we both had a wonderful time staying with her grandmother, Janet Carpenter.  It rained on us all the way to the other side of Birmingham as we traveled and I was so thankful the skies cleared as we traveled on to Atlanta.   I managed to take a wrong turn off the interstate when we got near our exit...okay several wrong turns, that delayed our arrival about an hour.  Thankfully, Mark Carpenter was on the other end of the phone and was able to guide us safely in.  After that weekend, I have declared i'm going to learn to use our GPS!  Thankfully we arrived safely and Mrs. Carpenter came out to greet us with a warm hug and friendly smile.  She could not have been more attentive and concerned for my special needs the entire weekend.  I was humbled by her thinking of me, and  her wanting to make sure nothing bothered my allergies.  Well, that is impossible, but she did her best.  She had organic food there for us, and made sure she didn't clean with anything that would bother me, or wash the sheets in detergent that would bother me...the only thing she didn't couldn't do anything about was the multitude of beautiful oil paintings that were all over her house that she had painted.  Janet started painting when her son, Mark when to college.  She attended an art class at Emory University and the rest is history!  She has the most beautiful paintings, inspired by CHRIST, adorning her walls.  She says she is a fast painter once she gets going...GOD has truly gifted her and she used that gift to bring HIM glory.

    After we got settled and situated, she took us to the Druid Hills Golf Club http://www.dhgc.org/Club/Scripts/Home/home.asp where GOD has used her and her husband, who is now with JESUS, to be missionaries there for him.  We ate in the big casual dining  room,   a delicious meal ...and later we went downstairs so I could use the sauna.  It was definitely one of the nicest places I have had the privilege to sweat in.  Mrs. Carpenter told me about "The Carpenter Cup" a golf tournament at the club named in honor  of her husband.  The money they raised is used for cancer research at  the Emory Medical School where my dear doctor went to med school.  While I saunaed Mrs. Carpenter worked out in the weight room, while Maggie patiently read and waited on us.  They both were so gracious and kind to wait for me each night while I saunaed.  Mrs. Carpenter told me that she challenges people at the club to read the Bible through and when they do she pays them a certain amount as an incentive for doing that.  Just recently the bartender at the club has finished reading the Bible through I believe.  What a great way to encourage others to get into GOD's WORD and read it for themselves.  She also encourages her grandchildren to read the WORD of GOD by rewarding them with money for each book they read.  I was so touched by 11 year old Maggie when I got up early Sat. morning to head to my conference, Maggie was laying in her bed with her study Bible and markers, reading and  studying her Bible,  marking key passages as she read.  It was a real joy for me for Mrs. Carpenter to ride us through the campus of Emory University where my doctor attended med school back in the 60's on our way to and from the golf club. It is a really pretty campus, with it's crosswalks over the street covered in Ivy.  I know this, they sure did a great job of training my doctor and i was honored to see where GOD had provided and led the way for her to go to med school to help equip her to deliver difficult cases like me from the miry pit. 

    The conference I attended was really a blessing...once I arrived.  My "google directions" left a little to be desired and thankfully, Mrs. Carpenter took a look at them the night before to help me find my destination, but again i made a wrong turn.  GOD in HIS marvelous lovingkindness, led me to stop at a gas station and ask directions and the man at the station had taken his little girl to the lab I was going to so he was familiar with it.  After touring Duluth, Georgia unplanned that morning:),  GOD led me to the lab just a couple of minutes or so after it started.  Thank you, JESUS!    The seminar was put on by Metametrix Laboratories (www.metametrix.com) the lab my doctor introduced me to through the various tests she has done on me  to get accurate measurements of nutrient levels in my body, to check the health of my intestines and see what may or may not need balancing or replacing or taken away...such a parasites!  I learned so much about amino acids and how important they are to our body.  These test show specifically where we are lacking and need to replace amino acids.  Did you know much depression is helped by replacing key amino acids?  I also learned about their allergy tests, and how helpful they are in determining what may be causing patients symptoms. I was afraid I would be really intimidated, but GOD's "marvelous lovingkindness," was there for me, and I met several nice people who put me at ease right away.  There was a lot at the conference I didn't understand that first day, and later my niece told me some of the stuff they were talking about had to do with gene tests which she learned about in microbiology.  I told her I was antiquated and we didn't do that when I took micro back in the 80's....wow, i have so much to learn!  It was a full day at the conference, going until about 5:30 that evening.  After I arrived back at Mrs. Carpenters, I heard about the fun and ministry that she and Maggie had had that day.  

                                      Maggie and her grandmother

One of the neat things they had done was go to the hospice home and take Mrs. Carpenter's dog to share with the patients there.  It is trained to do that, and it's neat she even uses her dog as a means of sharing the love of JESUS with others.  Later, she and Maggie went to Neiman Marcus for lunch and shopping and they had a fun time together hanging out all day.  I learned a lot about being a godly and fun grandmother that weekend as I saw Mrs. Carpenter's godly influence and love for her granddaughter.  When I came in, she was sewing and working on some clothes for Maggie to take home with her.  Maggie is one of 8 children, thus far in her wonderful family.  Blessings abounded for me that weekend, and I can't say enough about GOD's "marvelous lovingkindness," and how HE lavished HIS love upon me, every way that I turned.  We went back to the golf club that night to eat and sauna, rode through Emory again, and  enjoyed eating a delicious meal out on the  deck that overlooked the golf course.  The next day, I returned to the seminar for a half of day,  and   Maggie and I had a safe journey home that afternoon, after she and her grandmother  attended church while I was at the conference.  I was blown away by GOD's "marvelous lovingkindness" to me that weekend.  

Author: Charles Haddon Spurgeon
Morning: Favors From the Heart
Evening: The Bands of Love

Morning: Favors From the Heart

"Marvellous lovingkindness."
--Psalm 17:7

When we give our hearts with our alms, we give well, but we must often plead to a failure in this respect. Not so our Master and our Lord. His favours are always performed with the love of His heart. He does not send to us the cold meat and the broken pieces from the table of His luxury, but He dips our morsel in His own dish, and seasons our provisions with the spices of His fragrant affections. When He puts the golden tokens of His grace into our palms, He accompanies the gift with such a warm pressure of our hand, that the manner of His giving is as precious as the boon itself. He will come into our houses upon His errands of kindness, and He will not act as some austere visitors do in the poor man's cottage, but He sits by our side, not despising our poverty, nor blaming our weakness. Beloved, with what smiles does He speak! What golden sentences drop from His gracious lips! What embraces of affection does He bestow upon us! If He had but given us earthings, the way of His giving would have gilded them; but as it is, the costly alms are set in a golden basket by His pleasant carriage.

It is impossible to doubt the sincerity of His charity, for there is a bleeding heart stamped upon the face of all His benefactions. He giveth liberally and upbraideth not. Not one hint that we are burdensome to Him; not one cold look for His poor pensioners; but He rejoices in His mercy, and presses us to His bosom while He is pouring out His life for us. There is a fragrance in His spikenard which nothing but His heart could produce; there is a sweetness in His honey-comb which could not be in it unless the very essence of His soul's affection had been mingled with it. Oh! the rare communion which such singular heartiness effecteth! May we continually taste and know the blessedness of it!

     After getting to spend one night in my bed, (I slept in my car during the weekend-too many oil paintings i think to stay inside), our family, minus John Mac who had to work, and plus my niece, Corinne, headed for Gatlinburg the next morning.  That was pretty overwhelming and amazing for this old gal who has a hard time traveling.  But GOD's grace was sufficient, and somehow, we got everything together and in the car, with a few words of dissension i might add:)...we were on our way.  GOD graciously allowed us to make the four hour trip safely and we stopped at Smoky Mountain Knifeworks http://www.smkw.com/webapp/eCommerce/main_front.jsp on the way in...Johnny's favorite store up there.  We checked into the Norma Dan motel http://www.normadanmotel.com/)  across from the Dixie  Stampede http://www.dixiestampede.com/ in Pigeon Forge before heading up to Gatlinburg to eat at "Bubba Gumps."  It was delicious and one of our favorite places to eat up there. It was cool and rainy while we were there most of the week, and after we ate, the girls, and I were ready to head back to the motel.  I bedded down in the back in the car, and except of getting cold a few times, I slept great in the car each night.  I did get cold that first night and thankfully I had plenty to keep me warm, my long underwear underneath my pajamas, a sweatshirt over my pj's, and a fleece pullover.  I couldn't move but I was warm.  I headed up to the room in the mornings to get warm by the heater.

       Tuesday, the girls slept late, and I went for a walk along the river that runs through town and walked down to the Old Mill Restaurant, where there is a large old paddle wheel turning.  I went in a few stores, and on my way back, I stopped to look at the horses at Dixie Stampede.  One of the workers was mucking the stalls, and she talked to me about the horses, and we talked about her journey and how she got there.  She was a wildlife major, out of a job, and when her boyfriend moved to the Smokies to get a wildlife job in the park, she moved with him, and got a job at the Dixie Stampede.  We talked a good while, and Hannah Beth came and joined me.  When I left I shared a tract with her, and I pray the LORD will use it in her life to bring her to JESUS.  After Hannah Beth ran, and I walked in the rain by now...we returned to the motel, got ready to head back up to Gatlinburg for a lunch of pancakes at "The Ole Pantry" where we always like to go while we're in the Smokies...i love their buckwheat pancakes...yummy!  After we ate, Johnny and the girls went to the Ripley's Aquarium and i headed up the mountain to the beautiful place to sauna the LORD has provided for me through the years at the Highlands http://www.highlandscondos.com/.  The sauna is located right next to the pool that overlooks the beautiful Smoky Mountains and I love to go up there for the view and for the sauna.  When I went in to turn the sauna on the knob was missing and I couldn't get it to turn on...i thought on no, the sauna is broken, and I won't be able to use it any more.  I went to the office to ask about it, and thank them for letting me sauna there, I sure was hoping they would let me continue using their sauna since I hadn't asked in a while, i just went.  Thankfully, the man at the office, was more than gracious, and the maintenance man was standing right there.  He went straight away, got the knob from the men's sauna and put it on and turned the sauna on...  What a blessing to be able to sauna in the luxurious club in Georgia the weekend before, and now this week, the beautiful Smoky Mountains. ..GOD's loving favor and marvelous lovingkindness to me.  After I saunaed and showered, and headed back down the mountain, I stopped in the NOC store http://thegreatsmokeymountainsparkway.com/_shoppi/nantahala_outdoor_center_the_great_outpost_gatlinburg_tn.htm , my favorite store in the Smokey's before going to pick up Johnny and Hannah Beth and Corinne at the Aquarium.  That evening, we went to the Dixie Stampede, Hannah Beth's favorite show, and  dinner...cornish hens, pork, rolls, corn on the cob, and apple pastries they pass out during the show and you eat with your hands.  Johnny bought us seats up close and it really was fun to be able to see the horses and pigs, buffaloes, and people up close.  I enjoyed it the best I ever have.  

    The next day  was Johnny's birthday.  I got the girls up, and we headed to Greenbriar, one of my favorite areas of the park, and took a picnic lunch.  We ended up eating it in the car, due to the picnic tables being wet, but that was fine, it was just a great joy to me to get the girls out in the woods a little bit and enjoy a picnic together.   That afternoon, I took the girls back up to Gatlinburg to go to the Ripley's Museum, and I headed for the Gatlinburg trail, just at the end of town there.  If you are ever up there and want a nice walk in the woods along the river right there at Gatlinburg, this is the one i recommend.  It is a beautiful, easy walk along the river and through the woods that takes you to the Sugarland's Visitor's Center http://www.mysmokymountainvacation.com/sugarlands.html.  I can't begin to tell you how much I enjoyed that walk by the river as it flowed over the rocks.  The  gravel trail takes you  by several old home places where just the chimney or rock fence is left but you can imagine what it was like to live there in those mountains in the not so long ago past.  The trail takes you buy the Ranger Center, and I saw the cages where they trap bears that have gotten too friendly or wander into places they shouldn't be.  I walked past an old cemetery and saw several graves, many of them infants, some teenagers, most dying pretty young.  The mountain life was a hard life and where we come and have vacation, others worked and lived, and cried and celebrated life and buried their young.  I went into the Visitor's Center...i love to look around in there, and they have a room that has lots of stuff animals from the park if you're there, and sat down for a few minutes.  Hannah Beth called and told me that Corinne wasn't feeling well, so I headed back down the trail, 2 miles, and went and picked them up. 

                                       Corinne and Hannah Beth at Greenbriar

      After we got back, we all rested and took naps, and then headed off to Mellow Mushroom for Johnny's birthday and to play putt putt that night at Old MacDonald's Farm.  Did you know Mellow Mushroom has gluten free pizza...just a tidbit for those like me eating gluten free-it was good too!  Playing putt putt was a lot of fun...all of us playing together, and they got a kick out of laughing at me. I thought the course was neat with all the farm animals, albeit fake ones, but it was was still neat with the sound effects and all.  Afterwards, we went in the arcade a few minutes where Dad lead the way in killing the gators...he remains the "king" at that beating all of us. We stopped at Baskin Robbins on the way back, i thought to get some sugar free ice cream.  We ended up eating an ice cream cake for Johnny's birthday, and I forgot all about my gluten free diet and the sugar free ice cream!  We had a great time that night laughing and being together.

    The next day, I dropped the girls off at Dollywood, Johnny rested, and I headed for Laurel Falls,  http://www.nps.gov/grsm/planyourvisit/waterfalls.htm, my new trail for the trip.  I try to do a new trail each time I go to the Smokey's and this is the one the LORD graciously gave me this time...Wow am i glad that HE led my steps to this trail.  I wasn't that excited about it because I thought it might be too busy since it was paved, but it was an awesome walk and I see why it is so popular.  As you walk along the path that winds up the mountains, the mountain laurel was blooming all along the trail...thus why it's called Laurel Falls. 

Mountain Laurel blooms along the trail

 I felt so blessed to be able to come exactly when we did so we could see the mountain laurel blooming.  See the pictures of the beautiful mountain laurel blooms.  I felt the best I ever have on a hike in the Smokies, and when I got to the beautiful falls, I was very thankful to feel so well. 

Beautiful Laurel Falls in the Great Smokey Mountains

 I stopped and admired the falls a few minutes before walking on up the trail which quickly turns into a regular path, not paved, and takes you into the old growth forest where the logger's in the 30's never reached.  After walking a little ways up that path, i decided to turn around and head back.  It was a nice walk down, and I enjoyed stopping at the falls again, along with several others, and I enjoyed talking to a lady from New York.  Her little dog, Misty, was with her, and we talked about her dog's health issues, which were similar to mine.  The LORD really spoke to me along the trail and confirmed to me that He was leading me in this path of learning about these tests and opening other doors to help others as I have been helped.  I wondered how many people would have like to have been able to take that hike but couldn't, like I have not been.  There were days we used to pass the walking trail in front of our local high school and I wondered if I would ever be able to walk around it?  GOD's marvelous lovingkindness has enabled me to do that now and much, much more, and how I praise HIM.  Yes, I am still on this journey and will be until I go home to be with JESUS, but how I thank HIM for the health HE has restored to me, and the education and all that I have received along the way.  

    After my hike, I went up the mountain again to sauna, back by the NOC store, and then joined Johnny in the room.  We later went to pick up the girls, and out to the Olive Garden that evening.  After we ate, we headed back to the room and the girls went to the Titanic exhibit.  They said it was really good, and they told lots of courageous stories about the people who were on the ship.

    I will have to say, I was ready to head home the next day.  My body was weary from being in  a different environment for the past seven days, and I sure had missed my dog, and my bed!  GOD in HIS marvelous lovingkindness did the sweetest thing for me and my dog.  I was concerned about my dog getting lonely during the day time while we were away, since John Mac was at work.  My sweet neighbor, Trisha Black went over and got Troy  and took him home to her house to spend the evenings with her family.   She sent me a picture of Troy at the house with them the evening we arrived in Gatlinburg and it made me feel so much better about leaving him.  John Mac kept him too when he wasn't at work, and later in the week, my in laws kept Troy for us so he had a vacation too.  GOD, once again being faithful to keep HIS promises, took care of my little dog...and our big ones, and our cat..."HE will perfect that which concerns me." Psalm 138:3.

    That is a good place to wind this email up...as I think about GOD's "marvelous lovingkindness," and HIS faithfulness to perfect what concerns us.  There is a lot going on in our world, big things, floods, tornadoes, earthquakes...these tornadoes and floods have affected almost everyone who receives these emails.  Through the devastation, the loss of lives, the loss of pets, homes, we are seeing and experiencing so many heartbreaking stories.  At the same time, GOD's marvelous lovingkindness is in the midst of the pain and suffering and HE is working out HIS perfect plan through all the breaking and shattering.

‎"We may be quite sure that the CREATOR, our LORD JESUS CHRIST, does not allow any breaking and shattering process in our lives without design." Hannah Hurnard, "Winged Life"

"Create in me a pure heart, O GOD, and renew a steadfast spirit within me...The sacrifices of GOD are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O GOD, YOU will not despise." Psalm 51:10, 17

   My own life is a picture of GOD's breaking and shatterings. GOD allowed my health to be broken and shattered as a young woman and I suffered greatly from a sickness that has taken me down many trails to find the help I needed.   HE continues to weave HIS marvelous plan as HE restores my health and equips me to help others as I have been helped.  HE weaves HIS plan in all of HIS children's lives, for those who have come to know CHRIST through faith and repentance,  for good and not for evil, no matter what happens to us on this earth.  As Oswald Chambers say, "GOD engineers our circumstances," and this gives me great peace.  "The LORD is close to the broken hearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit." Psalm 34:18.  In HIS marvelous lovingkindness, HE reveals HIMself to us so much during the times of heartache and grief, and saves us.  There are so many who are crushed in spirit through these difficult storms and days we're living in.  May we all be faithful to remember them in their prayers, and do what we can to lighten their load, or the load of those right in our own household by encouraging them and strengthening them with the thought's of "GOD's marvelous lovingkindness," and how very much HE loves you and me. 

http://blog.al.com/wire/2011/04/alabama_tornado_casualties_a_l.html#Franklin 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110527/us_yblog_thelookout/husband-gave-life-to-save-wife-from-tornado-he-was-my-hero

 Please remember these families and all who have lost loved ones in the recent storms that have hit our land and around the world. 

     GOD has kept bringing a song to my heart these past few weeks that i haven't heard in years called, "The Only Real Peace," sung by Candy Hemphill Christmas.  Johnny and I used to listen to it in his seminary days on our trips home from Texas. I just looked it up on you tube and there it was... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uikXpdWfzBc.  I hope you'll take time to listen to it, and  be blessed and comforted by it's words as I am when life doesn't seem to make sense.   

        Thank you again so much for your prayers for John Mac.   Please remember HB and I as we  both start to school this Tuesday.  She will be taking anatomy classes, and I will be taking PreCalculus and we both need your prayers.  I have been accepted into the senior year of nursing school at UAH...i can't remember if I told you that or not. If GOD provides the way, I will proceed with that...otherwise, I will wait until the right timing.  HE knows what is best for our lives.  GOD has opened so many doors for me, even this week, and I am holding on to see what HE's going to do next in HIS" marvelous lovingkindness"

With all HIS love,

 mitzi