God Answers Prayer

Like all moms who love Jesus do, I pray daily for all my kids.
Lately, upon occasion, I've been texting or direct messaging via twitter a reminder to them that I'm praying.

I just got this email from daughter Susan (missionary in Swaziland) regarding one of those reminders.

Thank you, Mom, for your prayers for protection. Yesterday was a great day for that.

Ben was taking a couple home last night (they stuck around our house a little while after the team to discuss their maybe moving out here). On the way a head-on collision occurred right in front of them. Drunk driver. Had they gotten to the intersection a few seconds before, they’d have been T-boned. Ben would have received the brunt of it. It could have killed him. They’d just been talking about God’s protection.

This morning Ben told me the reality of what happened last night was sinking to him in a little more. He had a brush with death, but God protected him.

I looked up the reference you gave me in the direct tweet, and now my Bible is open on my lap to it: “The declaration of the Lord: ‘I will be a wall of fire around it, and I will be the glory within it.’”

Yay. So glad He’s watching out for His kids.

I love you. Praying for you too.

Sooze


I think I'm going to dance...

Four Ohlerkings

Dan, Dave, Josh, J.D.   Handsome all!

SHOPPING!

A few days ago Shannon and the girls and I went to the mall. Following is a photo journal of the successful trip.


                                             Let Marley drive


                                                       This purse or this purse?


                                             Pretty in purple


                                            Peek-a-boo!

                                                                                                                 

                                                                                                                                                         
                                                              Monroe

                                                         Monet

                                                             Marley


                                                       M&M Models


                                                       Twin-e-quins


                                             Taking a load off


                                             Chocolate!


                                    We could bake a cherry pie with the right equipment!


                                             Gems


                                             Leopard bras (do leopards wear bras???)


                                             Ice cream break


                                                     Juice break


                                             Bargain shopping


                                             Window shopping


                                            A good day

Great-Great Grandpa Ohlerking

Not everyone has a tin photo of their 2x great-grandfather.  Dave has this one of his German-born-and-raised grandfather who came to America at the age of 18 by way of Ellis Island.

Very cool.  

Rather stern-looking dude, huh?

Reminiscing

It's Dave. He started it. Browsing through the tons of old photos we have in boxes and files and albums. Nothing like an old picture to bring back old memories.

We have ooooed and awwwwwed and laughed and wept at the great experiences we have been allowed in our nearly 50 years of marriage.

Here is one of those moments...

Background is that daughter Susan was born in the Philippines during our first term as missionaries there. We were nearing the time for our first furlough when I took this series of shots of her and made appropriate captions for our newsletter to supporters.


"Only a short time till we go to the States."


"I haven't got a thing to wear!"


"I'll have to get busy and make something new on Mom's sewing machine."


"Then I'll be pretty to meet everyone!"

Aw...

I think they were engaged at this photo event...circa 1993.

Susan had the big bow syndrome.   (I loved 'em on her.)

Ben had a birthday last Sunday.   I love you, Ben.

A FAVORITE PHOTO

The Rodgers family, Ben, Susan, Kayla, Levi, Trinity.

Great Children's Cup missionaries to Africa.  Great kids.  Mine.

I Should Have Guessed...

Today eight-year-old grandson Lincoln gave me a jelly bean to taste.
Just one. One little jelly bean. I should have suspected something.
Not just your ordinary run-of-the-mill jelly bean.
It was a weird yellowish green color with some dark flecks sprinkled in.

I popped it into my mouth. He watched eagerly.
I should have guessed something was up.

"What's it taste like, Meemaw?" he asked.
"Well," I chewed and tasted and tasted and chewed. Very slowly.
"I'm not sure...but it is..."
Nasty, I thought to myself. Nasty.
I couldn't place the taste. But it was vaguely familiar.

"It's buger. It's buger flavored, Meemaw!"
Akky. That was it. That was the flavor. I knew it from some 65 years ago.
It was one of those "flavors" you just don't forget.
(Why do kids think they have to taste their bugers?)

At this point the jelly bean was the consistancy of sticky and slimy, laced with small soft chunks.
I tried to swallow it but it wouldn't go down. Tried again.
Gag.
And I tried again. I didn't want to puke.

As I delicately spit it out into a kleenex, Lincoln was cracking up.
He showed me the package of Jelly Belly "Bean Boozled" candies his big brother JD had received as a gift from Uncle Josh.
Gross. Gag. Ack.

I am left with one question: How many bugers did the developer have to taste to perfect that exact jelly bean flavor?

Boasting Posting

I love being a grandmother.  I love boasting about my awesome grandchildren.

I love posting photos of them.

Bear with me.  You will one day be a grandparent, too, oh Dear-Reader-Of-My-Blog.  And you'll also get really goofy over your grandchildren.  Count on it.

That said, check out my stolen photo (from son Dan's post) of granddaughter Tori and her BRAND NEW DRIVER'S LICENSE!  Go Tor!  She's gonna need to learn how to drive on the other side of the road one day when God moves her to Swaziland as a Children's Cup Missionary.  (Oh happy day!)

(When did they start building those licenses in "portrait" instead of "landscape?")

And just one more picture for you to gaze at--and become jealous of my blessed life:

This was taken on Valentine's Day.  Josh & Shannon's kids with Pop and Meemaw: (L to R) Monet, Vaughn, Marley, and Monroe.  I figure you can identify Pop and Meemaw.

Now We Are Four

This is a recent photo of twin grandsons Rhodes and Rhett...the day after their birthday.
Amongst all the wonderful gifts they received, they loved all the (cheap) dinosaurs.
I love their haircuts and muscle shirts.
DOUBLE CUTE!

An MK at Work

Trinity, our 4-year-old granddaughter, is shown here giving one of her outgrown outfits to a cute little girl at Murray Camp CarePoint.

You're never too young or too old to get involved touching lives for Jesus.

Feathers to Fried

When I was a kid my mom fixed the chicken from feathers to fried. I guess we could have purchased a "dressed" hen at the grocery store, but we didn't.

We'd go as a family to buy the hen from a local farmer; he'd put the chosen chicken in a gunny sack (burlap bag) and dad would put it on the floor in the back seat by our feet where we kids would make friends with the chicken by stroking the beak she'd poke out the sack, even naming her.

Once home, we'd beg dad not to kill this one, please let us keep it for a pet.

He'd ignore our pleas and he'd sharpen his little ax...or a very sharp butcher knife. We knew what was next and didn't want to miss it. He'd remove the hen from the bag and lay its head across a little stump of wood, holding it in place with his foot.

He was so fast and the knife or ax so sharp that before we knew it, the head was lying on the ground and the rest of the body running all over the yard--like a chicken with its head cut off.

We nearly fell over ourselves with gales of laughter...

We never regretted eating the wonderful fried chicken mom made out of it along with mashed potatoes and gravy, corn on the cob, fresh green beans...and a cherry pie. mmmmmm

(If you want, I can go into the process of "feathers to fried" in another post...)

Cup missionary Christy triggered this post by her last one. Check it out.

Susan Jean

In Manila, Philippines, only 33 years ago today, God blessed us with a daughter we named Susan.

We dedicated her to Jesus when she was only a few weeks old.

Then a few weeks later (that's all it seems like!)  we gave her to Ben Rodgers to be his wife.

Then after a few more weeks, we let go of her again, and blessed Ben and Susan as they moved to Africa as missionaries.

How could we hang on to you and refuse to bless the very thing for which God has called you?

Happy birthday, Sooze.  We miss you and we love you.  And we are praying for you.

Celebrate!

February is the month of Celebrations for the Ohlerking Tribe.


8 Feb Dan (42)


9 Feb Lincoln (8)



14 Feb Dave (68)


25 Feb David 3 (13)
Sorry I don't have a more current photo of D3...it's been a long time since we've been able to see him. But he is loved more than he can imagine!



29 (Feb) Rhodes and Rhett (4)
This will be the first time they have had the privilege of celebrating their birthdays on the actual day since they were born on leapday in 2004.


Besides all the birthdays, Jimmy & June, Beano & Sharon, as well as Dave & I celebrate our anniversaries in February.

And last of all, hugs for Valentine’s Day for all our special people--including you!

Christmas 2007

Traditionally at our house on Christmas Eve we have the little kids dress up and act out the Nativity. This year our "actors" were Rhodes and Rhett (shepherds); Lincoln (one of the wisemen); Monet (angel); Vaughn (Joseph); Monroe (Mary).

We sang a few carols, Pop read the Christmas story from Luke and prayed, thanking God for the gift of His Son, Jesus.

The kids opened their gifts from Pop and Meemaw.

In the middle of evening we traditionally ask a question and go around the room giving opportunity for each person to offer his/her answer. This year our question was, "What tradition makes it Christmas for you?"

"Family."

"Jesus birthday."

"Food."

What answer would you have given? What tradition makes it Christmas for you?

An Emotional Task

With Ben and Susan and the kids staying here at our home on their short furlough, the daily chores have, of course, increased.

The kids are really helpful however. They not only make their own beds, load/unload dishwasher, vacuum, dust, "pick and put" (a process of picking up stuff and putting them in their proper places), but they also take the dirty clothes to the laundry room.

Hence the photo of Levi carrying the daily stack through the kitchen to the laundry. Evidentially he dropped an item and had to pick it up--discovering to his horror a pair of Trinity's undies.

All seven-year-old brothers of little sisters will understand his emotion.

How Does It Feel to Be Worshipped?

wor·ship v
1. vti to treat somebody or something as divine and show respect by engaging in acts of prayer and devotion
2. vt to love, admire, or respect somebody or something greatly and perhaps excessively or unquestioningly
3. vi to take part in a religious service


Just ask Uncle Danny. Trinity thinks Uncle Danny is wonderful. That's why she laughs at his jokes.

The Hornets

Shown here at the HPC sports complex are Hornets' coach Dan Ohlerking (my son) and his assistant coach J.D. Ohlerking (Dan's son, my grandson) instructing their Upward basketball team in the fine skills of becoming good players.

If you'll look closely, you'll see Children's Cup Missionary Kid, Levi Rodgers, with his shirt up, just like they do it in Africa. (If it itches, scratch it!)

Levi and his family are home in the USA on a short furlough.

Check the line up...the last two are Vaughn and Lincoln...

Cousins Levi, Vaughn, and Lincoln were born in the year 2000. They are like the Three Musketeers when they are together.

Yep. These are some of my grandsons.

Three of Six

Okay. I should probably call this blog Meemaw because most of my posts are about my awesome grandchildren. Maybe I'll change it one day.

Anyway, here's a cool pic of three of my six beautiful granddaughters: Tori, Kayla, Trinity.

Kayla is 10!

Happy Birthday to Kayla.
Kayla is a missionary kid who lives in Swaziland. She and her brother, Levi, are homeschooled. Her sister, Trinity, attends a preschool.
Kayla is home on furlough with her parents and siblings for a few months.
She's our #2 granddaughter and #4 grandchild.
Kayla has written a few really cool praise songs. If I can figure out how to do it, I'll try to post a little video of one of them one day.
And she got her long hair cut last week, donating it to Locks of Love.