Thanks to Miami Valley K9 Search Team for your participation in the Fall Festival at Safe House of Worship.  Kids and adults alike were amazed by the search and rescue team.  Amber Meade brought her bloodhound Daisy, Darlene brought Toby (a bloodhound) and Emma and Loren brought Sarge & Phoenix.  Examples of searching were given by each team.  The children were amazed and participated overwhelmingly at the end of the program.  Job well done K9 team.

Safe House of Worship wishes all of you a safe and restful LABOR DAY!  Remember: Even God rested on the seventh day so for all of you workaholics take a day off!

After weeks of preparation Riverside Community Festival finally arrived and Safe House workers were ready!  Over 600 Back To School Bags and 700 balloons were given away.  Our entry into the parade was great!  This was our first time to participate in this particular festival.  Thanks Mayor Doan and the city of Riverside for the warm reception we received.   Below are a few memories of this weekend.  More pix of the parade are soon to follow.  Enjoy!  

Wow!  The hot days of summer have hit!  Summer has come to southern Ohio a little late this year, but it is here now and with a vengeance.  One vivid memory I have of summer (this is Joanne writing this week) is from Somerset, KY where we lived for 4 1/2 years right after our youngest daughter, Paige was born.  Pastor Allen was busy running a roofing and painting business.  The yard needed to be mowed.  It was about 1 in the afternoon and the temperature was in the upper 90’s.  I went outside, started the push mower and began to mow.  I felt that presence of the Holy Spirit that guides us into all truth.  He spoke to me and said, “Esau would never had sold his birthright if he had not pushed himself to the point of exhaustion.”  I turned the mower around, put it back in the shed, waited until the cool of the evening and then mowed the yard.  This message was for me, a workaholic, someone who never knows when to quit no matter what the task at hand.  I am very thankful that the Word of God also speaks to those who do not have enough drive.  “If a man does not work, he shall not eat.”  II Thess. 3:10.  Want to guess what practical thing the Word has to say about pure religion?  It says to visit the widows and fatherless and to keep ourselves unspotted from the world.  James 1:27.  Our Father also left some more practical instructions.  He told us to work only 6 days a week and to rest one.  That instruction smacks some of us on the back of the head.  To some, taking a whole day without working almost wears us out.  To others, having to work more than a few hours sounds like hard prison time.  Our God in His infinite wisdom left instructions of moderation for all of us.  He also instructed us to have only one spouse.  Just one person who knows more about you physically and emotionally.   This teaches us sanctification.  Sanctification simply means, “Set apart”.  I am set apart to Pastor Allen.  No one knows me like Desi Allen does.  The only one who knows me better is my maker, God Himself.  That’s why He said, “Keep yourself unspotted from the world”.  God wants His people to be more about Him than what they are about themselves.  Want to know an interesting fact?  Everything that God tells you ends up being the best thing that could ever happen for or to you.  So, in these hot summer days, remember the practical instructioin of the ultimate source.  He is God.  We should work, play and rest all in moderation always putting God and His Word first.  After all, He knows the past, present and future.

                                       I did some work for old customers of mine this week, the Thurmans.  I have spoken of them before.  This elderly couple, both in their eighties now, have endeared themselves to me.  They met during the Second World War while they were both serving in the Navy, fell in love and married.  Captain Bud Thurman served until his retirement in 1975.  It has been my privilege to work for them on several occasions.  I count them as friends.  They have recently moved into an assisted living facility.  I was asked to do some work at their home of forty-some years in order to get it ready to sell.  They have not moved all of their belongings out of their old home and in order to do what had to be done, I found myself moving things around to clear a work area.  Among the stuff moved like a pool table, ping-pong table, weights and bench, treadmill and other fitness equipment, we moved a lot of personal paraphanelia:  pictures and plaques marking their days and experiences in the military, pictures of ships, destroyers and aircraft carriers. There were scenes of places around the world that I have never heard of.  There were mementos most certainly presented to them by the men and women who served under their command.  One collage was an artistic drawing of Captain Thurman and many of the important people he had met through his long career.  All of this may be just stuff to an outsider but to them these are a few of the things that mark the tracks of their lives.  When they are gone, these things will help their children to remember and will tell their story to their grandchildren and great grandchildren.  For me, it has enabled me to realize what a great couple they truly are and the sacrifices they willingly made for their country.  I wonder, what kind of tracks will we leave behind?  What mementos will there be to tell our story?  The question each of us should ask is:  are we living a story worthy of telling?  Are the mementos of our lives going to be such things as empty bottles, used needles, broken promises, ruined lives and unattained dreams?  Or, will there be such things as good memories, pictures of places and people we have loved, old useless but cherished gifts, love and honor?  The choice is yours.  You can decide right now which it will be.  What story are you leaving behind and what tracks have you made?  Stories are to be told and tracks are to be followed.  Will your story tell what you want heard?  Will your tracks lead those you love to a place you want them to be?