It’s That Time of Year

I don’t know about you but I have been super busy, not sure if I am coming or going. Last January I came up with an idea—to scan my paintings and then make notecards to sell. Sounds easy enough but it has been anything but easy. Now, to all you computer wizards, I am sure you are wondering ‘how can that be such a hard task?’

I am anything but a computer wizard so it was indeed difficult for me. I started immediately working on making these cards. Failure at every print! I even gave up for a while. But the end of October, I took the challenge once more. For over a month now, I have been trying to merge my picture onto a template. In my frustration, I gave up and started printing the pictures on a plain piece of paper and gluing them onto the cards. I figured I was going to call it good.

One last thing, I’d put out a plea to anyone who would listen to my predicament and of course, people don’t call or talk face to face so we went back and forth in text messages. I don’t speak computer language so much of the time, I wasn’t sure what they were asking. That is, until Wednesday, when my wonderful daughter (and very smart, I might add) sent me a text asking for one of my paintings. I emailed her one and she started playing around (that’s how she explains it) and within a short time, she had it! So, she emailed the finished product back to me, minus the printing…I have the art printer (or whatever it’s called).

We went step by step and before long I had my first notecard that I was satisfied with. We continued to tweak it until we both liked the finish product and did a “save as”. One painting is now a notecard. Just so you understand, I used to give all my little card paintings away but I was sure that very few people valued all the hours I put into painting it so I had decided to come up with these prints.

Are you ready for this? So, Dawn said I needed to take another painting (that’s scanned into the computer) and make another notecard. She was watching me from her home on Team Viewer or something like that. We went step by step and when I tried to merge the painting onto the template, it did the same thing that it had been doing for me. Dawn was shocked…but she’s a smart cookie and a good trouble shooter. Since she was able to maneuver this task from her end, she figured out that my mouse is misbehaving. She is bringing me a different mouse and now I will have notecards to sell along with my books.

This fall I have gone to a few craft fairs along with a couple of book signings and have been happy to be selling more books than ever before. I would say I am not good at marketing my own products so this has been a learning journey! At one point I was finally in the black until I realized that I needed to order more books so back in the red once again. I am very excited to introduce the cards either at the next book signing or at a craft fair.

If any of you are interested in either buying books or cards, please get in touch with me through my email (manager@afaeoriginal). I can mail products but postage is about $6 for one book or four cards. I am sure we can figure something out.

I know it’s been a while since I’ve written but I thought you would like to know all the glamour that goes with being a writer and painter. Now that’s funny! I realize that the things I say aren’t always as funny as I think they are.

I have totally enjoyed meeting new people at the craft fairs and look forward to seeing you all soon! May God watch over you as He gives you His rich love and joy!

Sex Trafficking, Domestic, Violence, Pornography (Deviant and Perverted-Degenerate Behavior)

Profile of Evil

Sin is sin!

Pornography, rape, sex trafficking, domestic violence, pedophilia, slavery. Abusers come in all social economic groups, both male and female, rich and poor, all ethnic groups, all ages, all sexual orientations and religions; they can be whatever you want them to be so that they get what they want. They can be charming, they can be funny, they can be intelligent, they can be talented, they can make you believe that they are hard-working, they can make you believe that they are not into drugs or alcohol or sex. They are controlling, they are master manipulators, they are deceptive and crafty, although they make you believe that they care for you, they only look out and care about themselves.

When a society becomes so perverted, so evil, so hard-hearted, that they can kill their own children and then later brag about it, you know we have fallen far from God’s grace into the pit of hell.

At times they can be kind, you think they love you. Actually, you long to be loved so badly that you see hope, love and kindness where there really isn’t any. They will call you horrible names one minute and then the next tell you how sorry they are, just to draw you back in.

They can be a lawyer, a doctor, a banker, a farmer, a factory worker or even a family member (mother, father or siblings), or a trusted friend or can even be the President of a country, a corporation or a non-profit, someone so important that it never crossed your mind that he would abuse you in any way. He may call himself a Christian and use Scripture against you or he may be an atheist and ridicule you for your beliefs.

When they cannot control you or don’t like what you’ve done, they will call you horrific names, they will hit you, push you, choke you and the list goes on and on.

These sins can often go from generation to generation. It seems that the father teaches his son how to keep their victim in control. The girls learn that their daddy treats their mother a certain way and it must be acceptable so they end up in an abusive relationship too.

This abuse (of all kinds) can go far beyond bruises, scars and broken bones; it can go into the heart and mind of the victim. Those are the scars you don’t see. The victim goes into a survival mode and people around them will blame them for what is happening. The mind games are almost unreal! People looking on cannot even comprehend this sort of abuse because it doesn’t seem logical. The abuser beats the victim down when they try to use logic, there is always something wrong with the victim and soon the victim believes those lies.

Now imagine that you are married and your husband is stand-offish. Where he once made you feel loved, you now feel useless, a nothing in his eyes.

Has he taken on a new love? A mistress? Or is it beyond understanding as he sneaks away into the dark to get on his computer or phone to watch pornography.

Or perhaps you don’t suspect a thing and walk into a room where he is watching TV and, there he is, masturbating. The shock you feel! The betrayal! Unbelief and then wondering what you have done wrong that he would do this? And when you gain your voice and ask “what are you doing?” (Really, you see it, you know but you can’t believe it!) And the first thing to come out of his mouth is blaming you for not fulfilling his ”needs”. Blaming you! Can you imagine?

In disbelief we can only go to God and His Word for comfort.

“When the woman saw the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.” (Gen 3:6) Understand that as early as Adam and Eve, God intended for the man to be the woman’s spiritual covering, to protect her, to provide for her and to always be there for her. As we can see, Adam failed miserably. And realizing they were naked, they made some coverings out of leaves.

In walks God, coming to commune with His creation. Why do you suppose God asks, “Where are you?” God not only knew where they were but He knew what they had done. He asked this question to give Adam (and Eve) a chance to repent. To fall before God in humility and ask God to forgive them.

But instead, Adam starts making excuses but in the excuses, he admits that he’s naked. Leading God to ask the second question, “Who told you that you were naked?”

And immediately the man said, “The woman You put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”

So, the man blames the wife God has given him and the woman blames the serpent. No one takes responsibility for their behavior and they really are blaming God and, it seems that Adam forgets that God had told him “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.”

Adam was given a helpmate, they were in perfect unity, walking in integrity in serving God. But as it was with the first couple, we today don’t seem to stay satisfied for long—this is unless we keep our eyes and heart on Him who created us. Husband and wife, both are always vulnerable to satan’s tactics of leading us into sin.

Sin is painful among families. Sin is deceptive. Search your heart and mind to check yourself. All sin seems to start out so simple, so innocent but sin is sin. It separates us from God.

Find help if you are in the midst of such deviant behavior. If you are the victim of someone in your household taking you down to the pit, find someone to help you. It’s a slippery road, look for stability in Jesus Christ alone.

Read the Whole Word of God

I am starting the read the minor prophets after just finishing Jeremiah and Ezekiel. If you have some interest in history, then these books will perk up your attention for it seems that it could have been written for todays world.

Anyone who says the Bible is not for today, has never read it!

We see that both Jeremiah and Ezekiel warned the Israelites over and over to turn from their sin and turn to God in repentance. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9) So the message throughout the Bible remains the same…confess our sins, turn away from our sins, and He is there waiting with open arms.

We are reminded that God sometimes compares our behavior to adultery against Him (see Eze 16:17). “Not only did you walk in their ways and do according to their abominations; within a very little time you were more corrupt than they in all your ways.” (Eze 16:17) Think about it, have we as a nation, become more corrupt than Sodom? Pride, excess of food and prosperous ease? Just how corrupt do things have to get before we will wake up?

Because of such behavior, “He controls the course of world events; He removes kings and sets up other kings.” (Dan 2:21a) He allows suffering and pain to draw us closer to Him. He allows suffering and pain to strengthen us. The choice is ours but often we do not take responsibility but rather blame others or even blame God Himself. Daniel 11:35 reminds us, “some of the wise will stumble, so that they may be refined, purified and made spotless until the time of the end, for it will still come at the appointed time.”

For months now, I have heard many Christians make proclamation after proclamation that God won’t allow “His own” to go through these hard times. But I ask you, didn’t He let His own go to Babylon? They were to “build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage; that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there and do not decrease.” (Jere 29: 5-6) Why did the Israelites have to go through the exile? Because of their sin, of not repenting, of doing their own thing, of not obeying the Word of the Lord. Oftentimes, there is a lesson to learn when we read Scripture and see this kind of punishment.

What lesson is God trying to teach us today? I see people quote this Scripture, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!” (Isa 5:20) It’s one thing to quote Scripture, it’s quite another thing to start living it out. That’s what God expected out of the Israelites and that is exactly what He expects out of each person who calls themselves a Christian or a Christ follower.

What exactly does this look like? He calls each of us to different tasks but one thing is for sure, whatever He calls us to will not be against His Word. Too many churches today are trying to draw in people by acting like the world…with their music, lack of Scripture reading, lack of Biblical preaching and lack of challenges to live a different life than what the world is living.

He calls His own to obedience—obedience to His Word. You won’t know what that obedience looks like unless you are reading the Bible. As you are reading the Bible, He, through the Holy Spirit, will prick your heart and you will know that what you’ve read is not only for you but that you are to obey those words. “Faithful Promises of God” can help you understand what you are reading and how to apply it in your life.

My newest book, “Faithful Journey to Serve”, just came out recently. As a memoir, it is filled with story after story of my missionary trips to Russia and Tobago. Read biographies about famous Chrisitians, it will further your insight in serving God. If anyone is interested in getting the latest book, they can contact me through email (manager@afaeoriginal.com) or facebook. I am also available do a book signing at your church or library; during which time, I will tell a few stories that aren’t in the book.

God Bless you!