Something for CHRISTmas

My daughter sent this to me in an email..I enjoyed it so much I thought you might like to read it . Merry CHRISTmas everyone. Its a little long but worth it.
Subject: John 3 : 16
God Bless all.....

John 3:16

A little boy was selling newspapers on the corner, the
People were in and out of the cold. The little boy was so cold that he wasn't trying to sell many papers. He walked up to a policeman and said, 'Mister, you wouldn't happen to know where a poor boy could find a warm place to sleep tonight would you? You see, I sleep in a box up around the corner there and down the alley and its awful cold in there for tonight. Sure would be nice to have a warm place to stay.'
The policeman looked down at the little boy and said, ‘you go down the
Street to that big white house and you knock on the door. When they
Come out the door you just say John 3:16 and they will let you in.'
So he did. He walked up the step s and knocked on the door, and a lady
answered. He looked up and said, 'John 3:16.' The lady said, 'Come on
in, Son.' She took him in and she sat him down in a split bottom rocker in front of a great big old fireplace, and she went off. The boy sat there for a while and thought to himself: John 3:16...I don't understand it, but it sure makes a cold boy warm. Later she came back and asked him 'Are you hungry? He said, 'Well, just a little. I haven't eaten in a couple of days, and I guess I could stand a little bit of food,’ The lady took him in the kitchen and sat him down to
a table full of wonderful food. He ate and ate until he couldn't eat any more. Then he thought to himself:
John 3:16 ...Boy, I sure don't understand it but it sure makes a hungry boy full. She took him upstairs to a bathroom to a huge bathtub filled with warm water, and he sat there and soaked for a while. As he soaked, he thought to himself: John 3:16
I sure don't understand it, but it sure makes a dirty boy clean. You know, I've not had a bath, a real bath, in my whole life. The only bath I ever had was when I stood in front of that big old fire hydrant as they flushed it out. The lady came in and got him. She took him to a
room, tucked him into a big old feather bed, pulled the covers up around his neck, kissed him goodnight and turned out the lights. As he lay in the darkness and looked out the window at the snow coming down on that cold night, he thought to himself: John 3:16 ...I don't understand it but it sure makes a tired boy rested. The next morning the lady came back up and took him down again to that same big table full of food. After he ate, she took him back to that same big old split bottom rocker in front of the fireplace and picked up a big old Bible.
She sat down in front of him and looked into his young face. 'Do you understand John 3:16? 'She asked gently. He replied, 'No, Ma'am, I don't. The first time I ever heard it was last night when the policeman told me to use it,’ She opened the Bible to John 3:16 and began to
Explain to him about Jesus. Right there, in front of that big old fireplace, he gave his heart and life to Jesus. He
Sat there and thought: John 3:16 -- don't understand it, but it sure makes a lost boy feel safe.
You know, I have to confess I don't understand it either, how God was willing to send His Son to die for me, and how Jesus would agree to do such a thing. I don't understand the agony of the Father and every angel in
Heaven as they watched Jesus suffer and die. I don't understand
The intense love for ME that kept Jesus on the cross till the end.
I don't understand it, but it sure does make life worth living. John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. If you aren't ashamed to do this, please follow the directions. Jesus said, 'If you are ashamed of me, I will be ashamed of you before my Father.' Pass this on only if you mean it.
I do Love God. He is my source of existence.. He keeps me functioning each and every day. Phil 4:13 If you love God and are not ashamed of all the marvelous things he has done for you, let someone know.. let them know today...

Thankfulness

Forbes Magazine reported that once again this year the richest man in America is none other that Bill Gates owner of Microsoft. His reported net worth is just over 46 billion dollars. This adds up to him making 65 dollars every second,3,900 dollars a minute, 23,000 dollars an hour every day.The world and the bible differ their view in what makes us successful/rich. The bible tells a story of a man that in his day would have been a Bill Gates, Luke 12:15-21 describe a man that was successful in life, that he enjoyed his riches and looked forward to a secure retirement. We also see that this man was selfish instead of giving some of his riches to those who needed it, rather he would tear down his barns to build bigger ones to store his riches.This man also was letting his riches rule his life greed had filled his heart and he found no room for God. We also are reminded in these passages the shortness of life, the brevity of life and what should be our priority, and that is to be rich with God. God called this man a fool for not preparing for his eternal future. God says it does not matter what we may have or not as long as we or rather He has us.Let us be thankful for what we have and to share what we have with others.And to prepare our eternal future in Him (Jesus). This thanksgiving Diane and I have have sold or given away most of our earthly goods and we have less than we ever have had but I for one feel like I have more than I ever have had. I have a closer walk with God, more in His will, finely ready to do what He has called us to do. So this thanksgiving as we all are having that turkey dinner with family and friends lets remember the "little" things in life are really the most important anyway and most of all to thank God for giving Himself through His Son Jesus Christ and to lay up that treasure in heaven so we can be rich toward God. Please pray for the children in Africa that have so little but in Jesus have everything.
God Bless you all. Happy Thanksgiving.
Donald/Diane

We’re Commissioned!!

We are now commissioned by our church as Missionaries to Swaziland.
How exciting.
It was so fitting that the special singer was a little girl, she sang before the pastor started to speak. We received a certificate and had beautifully decorated cake, fellowship, hugs and tears afterwards.

We had 3 of our previous mission trip “family” who joined us. It was great to see Mr. Jernigan, his son Kevin, Brett and Pam Asher. Thank you for joining us in another step in our journey

We tried to explain our calling and what our goals are for the time we will spend
in Swaziland. Donald did an excellent job but I am not sure I did too well since most of my time was spent in tears.

Time is moving by so fast.
It is a bittersweet feeling,
Excitement about leaving to start the calling God has given us while the heartbreak of leaving our daughter, son-in-law and grandson, sisters & brothers and ailing grandparents and all our family. Please put our daughter in your special prayers we have always been a very close family and 8.000 miles without talking everyday will be quite a distance to get use to.

Thanks to all of you for your support in all you have done and continue to do
. Your prayers are coveted.

An Invitation

This is an invitation to anyone who happens to read our blog and would like to attend our commissioning service our church Is holding for us.
The date : Sunday Night November 9th 2008
The Place: Piney Grove Chapel Baptist Church, Angier, NC
The Time: 6:00 p.m.
If you would like directions please email or call : ddapage@hughes.net or 919-552-6920.

Hope to see you there !!!!!

God Bless..
Following HIS lead.
Donald & Diane

Wonderful Blessings

God has blessed us with wonderful relatives and friends. This past Friday our family and friends gave us a BBQ Fundraiser. Lot of work but great blessings. We cleared enough After expenses to pay for our airfare to Swaziland. We now have a concrete date Of when we are leaving.
February 2nd 2009.
Our flight will take us through Atlanta to Johannesburg and then on to Manzini. Won’t be much longer..
Please know you All will be a part of us helping to spread the Gospel to the people of Swaziland.

Really want to say a big “thank you” for all who helped in ALL aspects of the Fundraiser.
Most of the ones there took off work to help and there are no words which will repay you for your time and hard work but I know God will bless you all.

It was nice to see friends we haven’t see in a while ( Brett Asher and his wife) and also
Thanks to Lorena and Mark for waiting around for me to return from plate deliveries
For all the gifts, thoughts and prayers you have given us.

God Bless you all…

ALMOST GONE

Well, all the “things” we have are almost gone. We had a moving sale this past weekend and sold almost everything we had. We have a computer cabinet , a tanning bed and some miscellaneous items left. It was funny, at the end of the day we looked and said we don’t have anywhere to put our plates to eat !! We even sold the tray tables we had..
Our house is almost empty now and it looks so much larger.
Our family will be giving us a “fundraiser plate sale” this coming Friday from 11am to 7pm at the Depot in Angier, NC. Plates are $7.00 each with your choice of BBQ chicken or BBQ pork. Come and enjoy.

Another note…we have our airplane reservations. We will be leaving for Swaziland
February 2, 2009.

Thank you to all those who are supporting us and for those who will continue.
God will greatly bless you..

Greatly Blessed

Well gald to say the yard sale was a success. We sold around 470.00 in about 4 hours. Big thank you to my special loving daughter, Amanda who was the the one who brought the family together for this idea and taking the reigns :) (she took these pictures and is not in any of them :( ..
..and a special thanks to my sis who went to bed at 1:30am and woke at 5:00am to set out all the items for sale with the help of head lights from the truck in the dark , thanks Sherry :P,

and my sis in law, Suzie for the breakfast from "Bo's" of course I can't leave out the men....what can I say...Love you all....

There will be another sale here at our house in the next few weeks a Moving sale, everything must go....
Keep us in your prayers. Time is ticking bye..

Till next blog...

quite some time

Hello out there..
Sorry it has been so long since my last post. Just want to give a short update on how God is working. We sold Donald's motorcycle and now the only item we have left is our camper/ toyhauler. If we don't sell it we will store it till we come back home on furlough then we can stay in it without disrupting anyone for a place to stay.
What can I say..God is Great !!

Oh, forgot, you can now read our blog from the Children's Cup Website, www.childrenscup.org,click on our blogs in the upper right of the page.
thank you Stephanie...

We want to express thanks for all the cards and prayers with the death of my dad and a continuing "thank you" from the bottom of our hearts to all of our supporters of prayer and monitary donations.

Our families are putting on a yard sale Saturday Aug.23rd to raise money to purchase items for a BBQ pork and chicken plate sale in September...

We are greatly blessed...
thank YOU and please continue the prayers for us !!!

God Bless
Donald & Diane

Remembering

Remembering a year ago today "My birthday" the first time Diane and I were in Swaziland at our first care point stop where an over privileged spoild american was honored by over two-hundred under privileged Swazi children that sang happy birthday to me. To date that was the best birthday ever, no there was no cake with many candles, no ballons or many brigthly wrapped birthday gifts but just an awsome knowledge of knowing just how very blessed I (we) are. It was also two days from now a year ago that God confiremen in mine amd Diane's heart that this would be our new home, the place that HE was calling us to help minister to those most vaugnerable and very vauluable children. It is just but a few months now God willing we will be back in that place God has called us to. Please keep us and our families in your prayers during this time of transsition for us and espesially the children of Swaziland. Thank you all our supporters and for a wonderful church family. To God be the glory great thing He is doing.

40 days of Prayer

Hey,
Children's cup is staring their 40 days of prayer...check it out..

http://www.childrenscup.org/v2/fortydays

We will be praying...

Exaltations

Just as David praised...........This is my praise..

10 David praised the LORD in the presence of the whole assembly, saying,
"Praise be to you, O LORD, God of our father Israel, from everlasting to everlasting.
11 Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, O LORD, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all.
1 Chron. 29:10-11

AMEN
(this says it all)

Blown Away !

No, not weather related, God Elated..
God is Great!! He has blessed us with wonderful friends who are loving and compassionate to our call to the mission field.
Just want to say "Bless you"

With Love in Christ always.

Patience

God makes a promise, faith believes it, hope anticipates it, patience quietly awaits it.
unknown
I read this today in my devotional and thought how true..
After several months of waiting God sent someone to purchase my motorcycle. Patience quietly waits, in HIS time.. my faith stayed strong and his promise always rings true.

Long time no blog

Sorry it has been so long between blogs. We have been very busy.
Donald's return from Swaziland was good, no flight problems on the return but he told me when they were on the flight going over they wound up having a 4 hour delay at one of the stops for them to repair something on the engine.
While he was there the team treated around 1700 children and adults. There were a large number who came to know the Lord during their 5 days working in the clinic. "To God be the Glory".
Donald said he would not have come home if it would have been possible for me to join him, things there are worse than when we were there in August 2007.
We attended a meeting at one of our local churches last week and enjoyed the music and preaching, Met a wonderful young missionary couple and received a lot of pointers.
We are now trying to get our information printed on brochures and prayer cards.
Still working on our support and need your prayers. Special thank you to all for everything you do for us.
Thanks for hanging in there with us....God Bless and will try to write again a lot sooner than last.

Love you all..

up up and away (ha ha )

Well, Donald has left for Swaziland this morning. Hoping his flight will be a safe one, please pray for him. This is the first time he has flown anywhere (especially 18 hours) without me.
He is joining a the Doctor and a few more to do medical visits to all the care points.
He's only been gone 2 hours and I miss him already. Since the flight is so long I probably won't hear from him until Monday, but I know God is with him and will take care of him for me.
Its hard after 29 years of marriage not to think I take care of him when we all know the truth...its God....

Our donations are still short and slow, but I have to keep the faith that God has called us and he will provide.
Thank YOU to all who have given and thankYOU to all who are keeping us in your prayers, (please continue)

God watches over us all the time, my car broke down this week and we were expecting a large repair bill but...God had sent us someone a couple of months ago who has a car like ours (20 year old Mazda) who had told us that if we ever needed repairs done to let him know, he just enjoyed working on them. Well, we called and he fixed ...how about $80.00 ...Tell me God is not Great !!!

Please reply if you read this so I will know if anyone is really reading this..
Till next time...

EGG or POTATO ?

I ran across this and thought about Mankind….
A person can respond to suffering like an egg, or like a potato. A potato goes into the boiling water hard, but comes out pliable. An egg goes into the boiling water soft and comes out hard. Author Unknown

Kind of like us…before Jesus – hard like the egg… but, after we accept Jesus in our hearts we become pliable and useful, soft and sensitive to suffering.

Our prayer is that more people will become like the Potato.

short update

Well, its been a while since our last blog. So much going on.

We have finally received our remittance envelopes and will be soon sending out our support letter. I have sent out around 30 e-mails with our support letter attached to churches in our area but have not received any responses as of this time. We are still in need of around 20,000 for each year short of our budget. Sometimes I worry that we will not have it by the end of the year to be able to leave and then again I know that God will provide :).

Everyone is so supportive and your prayers are very much welcomed.

We are still trying to sell my motorcycle and the camper, I am hoping that this spring we will be able to get them sold.

Praise..

We had our first donation to our account last week and we

want to say "thank you" it is greatly appreciated.

Our thanks to those who prayed for our Grandson who had surgery on his adenoids and seems to be getting along a little bit better.

Until next time, God Bless....

Treasures

As we are selling our things (earthly treasures) I am reminded of just how blessed we are.
God has poured out His blessings on us in every way and surely with earthly possessions.
I think we both have had a feeling of sadness and at one point I had a feeling of guilt in selling some of these things, in that God had blessed us with them and now we are selling them as though we where not thankful. But God spoke to my heart and reminded me of what He tells us in His word in Matthew chapter six about treasures, not to lay them up here on earth where moth and rust corrupt, where thieves can steal and I may add and depreciate to be worth almost nothing, but to lay your treasures in heaven where nothing can take them. We are not selling these things to make a profit but selling them to go and do what God has called us to do, When I'm reminded of that I have a feeling of satisfaction and a feeling of blessedness more than I can explain.
Things (treasures) are good but doing The Thing God has called you to do is the BEST.
Please pray that God will help us to continue on the journey. God Bless.

Wonderful

Well it's been another interesting week. We now have sold my car which has left us with one vehicle which we will be parting with this Saturday. With Donald's 24hr on and 24hr off it makes it hard for us with just one vehicle. But get this..... Thanks to some very loving friends of ours we have not suffered...they loaned us their personal truck for a while till we find another vehicle for me. And even more.....The family who is buying our truck has so graciously offered to loan us a vehicle for us to use till we leave for Africa....God Is so Great...We still have one motorcycle and a camper to sell but I know God will send someone for them also. We are working on getting our support letter together and hopfully be sending it out soon.
We ask for your prayers for obtaining our support.
Till next time...
God Bless !!!

Meet Bubba

Would like for you to meet the "apple of our eye"

This is Brett, we call him Bubba, our one and only grandbaby..

Can you guess who bought him the tractor???

Papa & Meme.....

What a Wonderful CHRISTmas...

Happenings

This past Thursday we closed on the sale of our house. We are no longer home owners…I thought I would cry at the closing knowing that the home we had thought we would own until we were no longer here on the earth was going to be someone else’s.
No, I didn’t cry…...matter of fact, It really feels like we are on our way to fulfill God’s will for our lives. (The day we move out may be a different story???) Our new landlord came today with a Rental Contract for us to sign. The amount of the monthly payment has been reduced by 50.00 and we only have to pay ½ rent for this month. WOW !! Anyway, God is really working. Out of the blue someone called last night asking about Donald’s truck. We really had not planned to sell it till later but evidently God has other plans.
We have not Advertised it for sale just to a couple of close friends, but if it’s God’s will it might be sold in the next week or so..(update b4 posting) They definitely want to purchase the truck in the next week or two…..
. There is still so much to do but I know he is there helping us every step of the way. So I will end this short blog with……..
God is Awesome !!!!!