Friday, November 13, 2009

Population Crisis Continued...

What is the population crisis theory all about?
There are two sides to every story aren't there? On one side, there are those who believe our world is in a state of crisis b/c there are too many people consuming and adding to the problems of the breaking down of the ozone. These people look at numbers of people currently alive and compare them to numbers of people who lived in past decades and centuries. Based upon those truthful numbers they come to the conclusion that there are more people alive know than ever and that the earth is over populated, etc....

Then there is the other side of the story...
It is the theory that we as a human race are headed for a Demographic Winter (a decline of the human family).
It is also based upon truthful numbers. They too look at how many people lived in past decades and centuries... however, they also look at the way families operated in those times and how many children they had (their fertility rates)... which in cause lead us to the numbers of people we have in the world today. Then they look at the numbers of people we have today and the fertility rate of today (which is drastically declined mainly due to the decay of the family). Just as the fertility rate of centuries past lead us to the future we are currently living in... so to will the fertility rate of today lead us to the future population numbers for the human race in our future (year 2050).

Last spring we order the video Demographic Winter.



It is a non-religious documentary which interviews demographers from all over the world on their views of the population crisis at hand. I would highly recommend it if this is a topic of interest. I found it a bit redundant and a little dry (they are interviewing Demographers... not entertainers), but very educational and eye opening.

Here are a few mind provoking quotes:
"Never in History, have you ever had economic growth with demographic decline."

"We have had 40 years of Social sciences... clearly the deterioration of marriage and the encouragement of sexual interactions outside of marriage are not good for children or marriage... the best way to change this is by strengthening the family."

Demographer Philip Longman, author of "The Empty Cradle: How Falling Birthrates threaten World Prosperity" observes, "The ongoing global decline in human birthrates is the single most powerful force affecting the fate of the nations and the future of society in the 21st century."

Birthrates have declined 50% in the last 30 years (since 1979- the year I was born). There are now 59 nations with 44% of the world's population, with below replacement fertility." Meaning we are not even replenishing! Makes sense doesn't with the average number of children per household being 1.4 children in Western Society. It takes 2 to make a baby... and they are only having one. My Bible says be fruit full and multiply. I am not going to say everyone needs to have a certain number of babies... I don't see a number in the bible. However, I know what multiplication is. You have to have a larger number than one to have any kind of expontential growth. Logically... if a married couple has 2 kids, they are in fact replenishing the earth, right?
God did not just say to "be fruitful and replenish." No he said, "Be fruitful and multiply." To multiply would be clearly more than two... correct? I know this is hard to swallow. I am not trying to be accusatory or black and white here. I am just making a logical point to drive home the connection between what God clearly says in the Old Testament and this current population winter we are headed for and why.

The United Nations predicts that sometime within this century, the world's population will begin to decline. The UN Population Division says that "world-wide we could achieve a below-replacement fertility by 2030. At some point the decline will become rapid."

Russia is losing 3/4 of a million people a year. France is in an even more dramatic situation.

Question: If birth rates are declining why does the world's population continue to grow?
Answer: Today's population is due to two factors. 1) Higher fertility rates in the 50 and 60s. 2) More people living longer due to the medical advances

Truth: A nation's demographic future can be seen in it's current birthrate.

These are just a few facts and theories I learned from this video. Very interesting isn't it? So which side do we stand on? Do we allow the media and today's culture views of too many people in the world deter us from having more blessings, I mean babies? Do we just sit and watch the human race walk down the road of a future headed for extinction?

What do you think?

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Friday, November 6, 2009

Population Crisis: Satan's Lie or Not?

For a while now I have been wanting to blog about demographic issues. The world's view vs the Christian world view. Today I was reading in, The Family (God's Weapon for Victory) by Robert Anderson, the chapter happened to be on this topic. In his book, he says, "Satan is the father of lies and there is no truth in him (John 8:44). He has repeated some of his lies often enough in the media that many unwitting Christians believe him. For instance, have you fallen for this one? There is a population problem. We are over crowded and running out of resources and therefore must limit the size of our families." I say, this is conventional wisdom in practically all circles today, Christians are not excluded from this. But how accurate are the statements that are spoken as if they were truth?

From a Biblical perspective some say...but the Lord says to be fruitful and multiply. Increase in number and subdue the land! Have we really done this? What do you think? We are in a battle are we not? As Christians we are in a battle against Satan and his troops (which we in number 1/3 of all the angels). Do you think Satan wants the christian army to grow in number and conquer this earth? We are in a battle for souls are we not? He already has this country believing a lie that babies aren't really babies until a certain stage in pregnancy. Did you know that 1 in every 3 pregnancies gets aborted in the USA. We have been deceived. God created us all in His image... His likeness. He so dearly wants to know us all and for us to know Him deeply. How great the Father's Love for us (all of us created... even those who don't know him yet)! So here is the question based upon the fact that Satan doesn't want us christian to raise christian warriors who are going to make change in this world. Should we assume this lie is from him? What is the truth? IS there a population problem? Or are humans living in an aging society that is going extinct?

I plan on covering this topic over the next few posts! Give me your thoughts?

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Thursday, November 5, 2009

Isaac turned 34!

Isaac You Are Many things to Us...
My Best Friend and Lover!
We know how to have a good time...

A Visionary at Leaving a Legacy of Hard Work, Integrity, and Devotion to Christ and His calling!










A Loving Son and Brother!








You are a loving and strong man!A optomistic believer!
A fun dad!



A caring dad!
You love Jesus!






You know how to play hard with the kids!






A loyal friend!



You know all the fun guy things to do!



A DYNAMIC LEADER!






Happy Birthday Honey!

We love You!


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Monday, November 2, 2009

Treating Swine Flu Naturally

We are finally on the upswing from getting hit with this SWINE FLU!

I am finding myself eating my words; when I made fun of how people were freaking out over this H1n1 scare.
"It's a pandemic!"

Well that "pandemic" got a hold of one Tolpin and made its contagious way through the lot of us over these past 2 weeks.

So to make every thing we have gone through worth something. I desire to help you, the mom, get ready for or treat this virus as best as possible without the Tamiflu.

The Symptoms very from one person to another but ours where fairly similar among each of us. You can look up symptoms on- line easily, but I will say one thing. Once you have it... you know you have it, because there isn't anything quite like it (Or at least anything I have personally experienced).
We were told from on-line sources that if you have the H1N1 you "won't typically" have certain symptoms... not true. We tested positive and had symptoms that the 'professionals" said were only typical of the seasonal flu.

My personal belief because of seeing it first hand... I agree that most people will contract this virus. So you need to get prepared!


2 Very Helpful Books:

Doctor Mom's Natural Healthcare for Children
by Kathy Duerr

"Homeopathy" An A to Z Home Handbook
by Alan Schmukler

There are many good ones out there... these 2 are my favorite of the 4 I have!

Of the 2 books, I used the second more during the swine flu period.


Basic Things you can do to build up immune system:
Echinacea
Vitamins (C, B-6, B12, D, all of them really)
make sure you have a good source of Zinc for vitamin absorption
Eat Healthy ( no fast food / restaurants- we think we got it at a nice restaurant on a Sunday night)
Excercise & Sleep Well- Nap

Golden ticket item: Dr. Zeff (my naturopath) has made a H1N1 tincture from the nosode
call his office and they can mail you one ($10 per bottle)
Salmon Creek Clinic, Washington
1-360-823-8121

He also has a seasonal flu tincture and flu prevention (each $10)


What kind of things should you have on hand to treat symptoms of the H1N1?
Epsom Salt (Lots of it)
Humidifier(s)
Vick's Vapor Rub (lots of it)
Electrolyte drinks
Frozen Chicken Broth or Chicken Noodle soup
(made ahead of time so it is easy to serve)
lots of clean towels
Tea (throat Coat, chamomile, peppermint, cherry bark)
Elderberry Syrup (for sore throat)
Cough Drops
Popsicles
Salt Crackers


Common Homeopathies:
I have only used Boirin Homeopathics
*Oscillococcinum*
(instead of giving full tube of contents.. my dr advised using a capful every hour- your choice of course)
Belladonna (30c)
(for a fever with red heat face.. sudden fierce fever- also headaches)
Gelsimium (30c)
(for a fever where there is drooping teary eyes.. pale face... fever high... hands cold)
Aconite (30c)
(you can use this for sore dry cough/
good to give as soon as you see symptoms of flu)
Nux Vomica (30c)
(vomiting... constipated... tummy upset... oversensitive to light and noise-irritable)
Spongia Tosta (30c)
(for croupy cough)
Antimonium tart (30c)
(wet-non productive cough- thick mucus in lungs)
*Eupatorium Perf (30c)
(for aches and pains in body... hacking cough)
Phosphorus (30c)
(when pneumonia threatens- )

Post Influenza Remedies:
Phosphoric Acid (30c)
(seems both tired physically and mentally)
Influenzium (9c-200c)
(use lower numbers for post flu... 200c for preventative (
once a week))

Above all of these those is the homeopathic tincture for sure...
these are homeopathic pellets you can give one pellet every hour as needed generally speaking... if you have questions just ask... I may not know the answers but if I do praise the Lord I can help!


Other Treatments to be done while Ill:


Wet-Sock treatment:
Learned from Dr. Mom's Book:
Soak feet in warm foot bath (I add Epsom salt for detoxing), while feet are soaking having a pair of socks soaking in a bowl of ice water.
Yes, ICE WATER!
After ten minutes or so of soaking, ring out ice cold socks put them on feet and put wool socks on top. Hop in bed for the night and for a common cold you should feel better by morning! It works like a charm... for swine flu... it gives reprieve from the 4-5 day long fevers.
This shocks your body slightly... you've got to try it!

Hydrotherapy:
Learned from Dr. Zeff
Take a hot towel 9as hot as person can stand and ring it out and lay it on torso (wherever ailment... I have also used this for mastitis and it works great).
Then once the towel cools have someone bring you and ice cold towel rung out as well and place it in same place after removing first towel.
Leave until it becomes warm.

This is great for reducing fever quickly.

Just a side note on fevers, I tried everything to reduce their fevers... even tylenol and children's motrin. I stopped after a couple usages because it only brought the fever down by .2-.4 , not a significant enough number for me to justify continuing use.

Vick's Vapor Rub:
so most people know to put good old vick's vapor rub on a kids chest when they can't breathe through their nose at night. My grandma, who was raised on the farm, taught me this trick when my son Austin was getting croup chronically.

You take a liberal amount of Vick's and massage it onto the child's feet. Then you put their socks on and put them to bed. Helps with any coughs... especially croupy ones! Plus kids like getting their feet massaged!


drink lots of good water... we personally use Kangen Water (alkaline ionized water)

If you have this and you have these weird symptoms which we had...

Legs attacked by virus ( yes it happened to my nine year old for 2 days and I gave her Eupator. Perf every ten min for 3 times in one hour and then every hour after that and she slowly got her ability to stand on them and walk. It can be scary but most likely it will go away. Worth going to the doctor for that though... they need to rule out that it did not get into the child's spinal cord by doing their basic, non invasive tests.

Another weird thing that happened to all the kids was eye sensitivity and head aches...horrible head aches! Our three year old though, woke up with an eye totally swollen shut ( he looked like he just got in a fight with Rocky). My naturopath had me give him Pulsatilla (30c)... within five minutes the burning and itching went away and he could sleep. He woke up looking totally normal.

Above all else we found ourselves on our knees in prayer. Drawing closer to the Lord! he hears our cries and the cries of our children. it is always scary to have kids with super high fevers over a long period of time (we are talking days at around 103.5). Remember that a fever is healing... I think of it as cooking the flu to kill it!

Lord, protect our dear friends and their little lambs!
Put your hedge of protection around them that they might be spared this horrible illness! Give all of us wisdom in how to care for our children! Let us help one another and work as the Body of Christ on Earth to serve one another. Bless those who have so graciously served our family. Protect them Lord!

May you have a healthy Fall & Winter!
Any other suggestions please feel free to leave a comment!


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Saturday, October 31, 2009

Interview with an Occult Convert

Since my last post on the Occult and Halloween I have had a lot of very supportive responses.

Our long time friends who live up North sent me this very interesting and eye opening interview.
Katie is a like minded servant of Christ who, along with a friend interviewed a woman named Sandi who had been a member of the occult for 29 years and came to know Jesus just 3 years ago (when the interview was done).
Her story of the reality that came from living in "The Brotherhood" is shocking at the least. Her perspective on Halloween & Harry Potter and the Christian Church are right on. Reading this article made me even more convinced of the convictions the Lord has placed on our hearts.
Thank you for sharing Ladies!
I hope and pray this reality rocks the Christian Church into repentance and starts to stand strong with the armor God gave it!

Here are a few highlights to tempt your pallet:

Sandi on her views of Christians celebrating Halloween:
Halloween is the occults second biggest "holiday"


Ruth: So when you see halloween stuff going on at church how do feel?
Sandi: Un uh - I think it’s terrible. I don’t think it should even be in the church. And I don’t think, satanists do not celebrate Christmas, which is a Christian holiday, so why in the world are Christians celebrating halloween? Then they decided to call it Harvest time, Harvest festival, or Harvest anything you can choose, but all you’re doing is saying we’re still celebrating halloween. We don’t want the kids to be left out. Well, I guess to shout - you should let the kids be left out. Because it’s evil; it’s just evil. Oh, isn’t that a cute little bunny suit - well yeah, but you’re still dressing up for halloween. There’s just nothing good about it, in my opinion. I hate seeing Christians celebrate it. My niece in Guam and their family, they’re muslim. They don’t celebrate halloween, and they don’t celebrate Christmas. So why is the Christian world finding that so hard to not have halloween in their churches. Even if they call it another kind of party. Oh, we don’t want the kids to be left out. Well, teach them why they need to be left out. My niece doesn’t go to town and by her kids candy just to help her kids celebrate halloween. You teach them young and they grow up and they don’t want to celebrate either. So it isn’t, I don’t think it should even be mentioned. I’m completely against it. And they go out and go trick-or-treating. Or they go, we’ll just take them to the mall, it’s safe there. You’re still acting out somebody else’s holiday. No, that’s not the right question to ask me, because I get on my soap box, because I don’t think it should even be an alternative, as they call it. It’s wrong.
Katie: Do you think Christians contribute to the work of the enemy when we celebrate?
Sandi: Well, of course! Then evil just sits back and says ha-ha! I got them half way there.
Katie: They don’t have to work as hard?
Sandi: No. Like some people who are just on the fence, it doesn’t matter one way or the other, he leaves them alone. They say we don’t have no trouble with satan, or lucifer, we don’t have no trouble with him. Well of course not, you’re not doing anything to get in trouble. It’s getting in trouble that means you’re doing something right, because you’re at least standing for your own principals. If you’re a Christian, stay there, don’t just go back and forth. And people don’t even realize they are, but they do, because they want to please - don’t want to make any waves. You better be making pretty big ones, on halloween - that’s a soar subject for me, I just can’t - I’m sorry, but I can’t see why a church would even consider it, even an alternative party. You want a part for your kids do it some other time, there’s lots of other days. Pull the kids together and just say lets get together this weekend. Like Friday night at the church Hall or whatever you call it, just for fun, just to be together. But not for an alternative for halloween. No. Shouldn’t even be there, but that’s my option.

To Read the Rest of the interview click here
Interview with Sandi. September 10, 2005

Background

Katie: How long where you involved in The Brotherhood (the occult)?
Sandi: 29 years.
Katie: How did you first get involved?
Sandi: I first got involved, my two friends and myself, we were in Seattle and our van broke down. We were hippies. Our van broke down so we couldn’t go to California. We all got colds because we were living in the van, and we’d hang out in the streets, and they said you need to get out of the weather. Come to our house. So ok - that’s cool. So off we went. I knew things were strange on the wall, but it was kinda the hippy age. It was like everyone kinda did their own thing. That must have been whatever they were in to - whatever it was. Not even realizing it was a spiritual thing, because I wasn’t raised in church either, I didn’t have any comparison. And so we got well, and wanted to go back to our van, but it was like - no just stay here, it’s good. So we just stayed on, and eventually just got to became part of the household. Then you got to go to the basement, and see what was going on. And that was like, whoa… from there on.
Katie: So there were quite a few people living in that house?
Sandi: About 22.
Ruth: What was going on in the basement?
Sandi: Well before you were accepted you couldn’t go to the basement. You could live there but you couldn’t go to parts of the house, and the basement was one of them. So, of course you wanted to get involved with everything. That place became home to me. Which was interesting, but it became home to me, and didn’t really want to leave. It was like I was totally accepted there. And that was more than I had before. So it was easy to stay.
Katie: And your two other friends stayed?
Sandi: They stayed too. So then there was a 5 year orientation. If you made the 5 years, then you’re well on your way.
Katie: Where they pretty clear with you, once you were living there, this is what we do, and we want you to be a part of it?
Sandi: That’s in the years when they were recruiting. Which they don’t do so much anymore.
Katie: Do they have enough volunteers now?
Sandi: Everything has been in place since about the 70s. Middle 70s. So they haven’t had to recruit. I mean - they’ve got local covens, where people at least you go home at night, but this was a live in, called The Brotherhood and they don’t recruit. Everything’s in place and has been.
Ruth: In place, meaning, they had for the goals they had set?
Sandi: Right, like they had police - people in the police department. They had people in the telephone department. in place. Attorneys, doctors - they had people in place in all these higher places in the government.
Katie: So they could get away with different things?
Sandi: So they could cover up for other things.
Katie: So would a lot of those people that were in the government and police - would they be living in that same house?
Sandi: Not necessarily but a lot of times, yes.
Ruth: So then having people in the police department. remember you were telling me about what would happen to the missing children?
Sandi: They wouldn’t be hunted for. They were used for sacrifices. Even though when they get caught doing something, they always say - we never sacrifice. But they do.
Ruth: What is the sacrifice stuff, not necessarily the details?
Sandi: Depending on the holiday - if it’s an infant; if it’s a boy or girl; if it’s an adult; boys between 10-15; or different sacrifice times is for a different category of persons.
Katie: How many a year on average?
Sandi: There’s several.
Katie: Consistent?
Sandi: Yeah, just like on the calendar.
Ruth: Would those kind of things go on in the basement then?
Sandi: Yes.
Katie: When someone was sacrificed, would the police in the cult help cover, because those people are gone?
Sandi: They’re gone, they don’t have a funeral, they’re just disposed of.
Katie: So as far as the government knows, they’re still living? Nothing is reported?
Sandi: They’re not reported missing so no one’s looking. Or if they’re looking they don’t know where to look. The child never comes home, or the adult off the street, nobody was missing him. But you could also sign up, for the appropriate age of sacrifice.
Ruth: Did you do that?
Sandi: Many times. I just didn’t get chosen. That was my biggest defeat, I think. I thought then, not now. I felt really rejected, because I wanted to give the ultimate.
Katie: Do you know why you weren’t chosen?
Sandi: No.
Katie: God’s hand, of course.
Katie: What was your main purpose or goals in The Brotherhood (the occult)?
Sandi: My goals were survival, loyalty, faithfulness, zeal. Oh, I wanted it all. Oh, I just dived into it. I had a purpose now and I wanted to go with it. I never thought about it being wrong. I just thought of it as being a religion. Another choice.
Katie: So did you view Christianity and some of the other religions as similar to what you were involved in?
Sandi: No, Christianity was a weak religion. For wimps and crybabies and crippled.
Katie: And then The Brotherhood was for the strong?
Sandi: Yes, for the strong, if you didn’t survive as a strong person there, you didn’t make it. My two friends didn’t make it.
Katie: So was that the 5 year initiation time where you have to prove yourself?
Sandi: Yes, the orientation, and they didn’t make it.
Ruth: Meaning?
Sandi: They died.
Ruth: In those 5 years?
Sandi: (nods yes) See, like when I started, they started out with 10 people and they counted us off, and I was nine. Nine means green, so my new name was Jade. So everyone gets a color and a name that goes with it. And when the 5 years was up there were only 3 left, and I was one of them.
Katie: And the rest were all killed or sacrificed?
Sandi: No, mostly just done away with. They weren’t even sacrifice quality because they had too many flaws.
Ruth: At the time, do you remember feeling sad that your friends died or were you just too loyal to the group?
Sandi: When he died - John died - it was like, it was nothing. But when Roberta died, it was like if I get out of here, I’m going to call the police. But then, by the time another year went by and my 5 years was up, then I never thought about it. And I was so loyal. That thought was gone.
Katie: What are some of the realities of life in The Brotherhood (the occult)? Or what was a typical day like for you?
Sandi: Well, you just get up and do your job. Everybody had a job besides living in the house, having a job to do.
Katie: Not a job for The Brotherhood, but a normal job you would go to?
Sandi: Well, most were fairly normal jobs, I was a psychic, so I don’t know if you consider that to be a normal job, but it was were I went every day. Read cards, the typical thing, so we brought money into the house. They kept 90%, and we got 10% for spending.
Katie: So where did that 90% go?
Sandi: We don’t ask, and don’t care. It just absorbs up in the house.
Katie: Would you all get together in the evenings?
Sandi: Yeah, just like a household would do.
Katie: So you wouldn’t have sacrifices or rituals every night?
Sandi: No, like once a month, twice a month maybe, depending on what the calendar said. Just like we just passed Sept 7, last Wednesday, and that’s like when they do the bride for satan for the year.
Katie: What is that all about?
Sandi: You become satan’s bride; it’s a pretty important place to be. Things like that, so there’s a lot of that kinda stuff through the year.
Ruth: Did you ever get chosen for that?
Sandi: Yes. I did.
Ruth: Is that kinda a one time thing or can you get chosen year after year?
Sandi: No, it’s once, and it’s forever.
Ruth: And what kind of thing do they do to celebrate that?
Sandi: It’s like a wedding, a ritual like that. You wear a wedding dress. But you’re always a bride once you’re chosen. There’s a big collection of brides. But it gives you a lot of privileges, like when you die and go to hell, you have your own room. And my prophecy was to sleep without dreams. That was the ultimate to me. I’d have my little room, and that was going to be what hell was gonna be for me, a privilege.
Katie: So it would be a benefit to not have dreams.
Sandi: Apparently, I never thought about it all these years, until I became a Christian. Nights were terrible. Nightmares, and horror things, to sleep without dreams would be such a gift. And I never thought about because it was so normal all the time. Awful sleeps. And so, didn’t anybody notice, I didn’t even notice myself - sleep without dreams? Like where am I living, that I’d be so awake a night with such horrible stuff. Never even crossed my mind. And even to become a Christian, I thought I still was going to hell. But they said why do you want to go to hell, I said so I could sleep without dreams. And I still wanted to go, but I didn’t know what it really was. But now I know! One time, someone came to my apartment, knocked on the door, said would you like to go to Heaven? I said hell no! Slammed the door. Pretty soon, knock, knock, knock, again, are you sure? I’m positive! I slammed the door. I mean - I was positive. Why would I want to go to Heaven for all those wimpy Christians. So even to become a Christian, I’m Christian now, almost 3 years. I can’t even believe how I thought. But then I see wimpy Christians and that still sticks in my mind. Crybabies. And I think, get a grip. If you got the strongest thing, if what is living in you is stronger than lucifer, then what’s your problem? It’s just took a long time to get it. And I still don’t get it but I’ve accepted it in the Christian world.
Ruth: Accepted what, the wimpiness?
Sandi: Yes, because if you have a cause in something you believe in, and you believe that God, Jesus, has more power than lucifer, then there’s no question, why would you still come moping and crying off to church so someone can give you a hug. Got your weekly hug - go home, wait for next week - get another one. No, no, no, no, no. That’s not right. I’m accepting it but I’ll never believe that if you can’t have a better life than where I’ve come from, then I’m in trouble. But I learning to be more patient, and why, I don’t know, but it’s the right thing to do. I think satan’s kingdom is ruled by fear, and power, and a different kind of zeal, you got a cause I don’t care if its 20 years ahead you still have the same zeal when it comes to 20 years ahead looking forward to things. But Christians can hardly make it from week to week, crying over something. Because, apparently, some people can not believe who Jesus really is. The power that comes. He went to the cross and died for you and me, and Ruth. That’s a lot of power. To give us - so we can life in a better place. Now I think of hell and I think - oh my gosh, how could I have ever believed that. But I didn’t have any other choices and I liked it. To sleep without dreams. Now, I can go to Heaven and we can sing all day if we want. You know Jesus loves us so much that He sings over us, it says that right in the Bible, says He sings over us. He loves us so much he cares to watch after us. But we are living in a world so full of sin, and we get sidetracked and our humanness gets sidetracked. But aside from that we should be stronger. I should be stronger. Some Christians I know should be stronger. Otherwise, your at the same place 20 years from now, and I don’t choose to be at the same place I was even 3 years ago.

Halloween

Katie: Was halloween a big celebration, is that one of the biggest?
Sandi: It’s not the biggest, it’s the second biggest. The biggest is in the spring for two weeks. October, is very big, but it’s second.
Katie: What’s the significance of the spring?
Sandi: It’s just a different celebration time, for a different reason.
Ruth: It’s at the same time Easter is, isn’t it?
Sandi: It’s parallel to Easter, but it’s on the same, the last week of April, first week of May, no matter when Easter comes, sometimes Easter is close to it, and sometimes not. It’s what you would call parallel to it though.
Ruth: So when you see halloween stuff going on at church how do feel?
Sandi: Un uh - I think it’s terrible. I don’t think it should even be in the church. And I don’t think, satanists do not celebrate Christmas, which is a Christian holiday, so why in the world are Christians celebrating halloween? Then they decided to call it Harvest time, Harvest festival, or Harvest anything you can choose, but all you’re doing is saying we’re still celebrating halloween. We don’t want the kids to be left out. Well, I guess to shout - you should let the kids be left out. Because it’s evil; it’s just evil. Oh, isn’t that a cute little bunny suit - well yeah, but you’re still dressing up for halloween. There’s just nothing good about it, in my opinion. I hate seeing Christians celebrate it. My niece in Guam and their family, they’re muslim. They don’t celebrate halloween, and they don’t celebrate Christmas. So why is the Christian world finding that so hard to not have halloween in their churches. Even if they call it another kind of party. Oh, we don’t want the kids to be left out. Well, teach them why they need to be left out. My niece doesn’t go to town and by her kids candy just to help her kids celebrate halloween. You teach them young and they grow up and they don’t want to celebrate either. So it isn’t, I don’t think it should even be mentioned. I’m completely against it. And they go out and go trick-or-treating. Or they go, we’ll just take them to the mall, it’s safe there. You’re still acting out somebody else’s holiday. No, that’s not the right question to ask me, because I get on my soap box, because I don’t think it should even be an alternative, as they call it. It’s wrong.
Katie: Do you think Christians contribute to the work of the enemy when we celebrate?
Sandi: Well, of course! Then evil just sits back and says ha-ha! I got them half way there.
Katie: They don’t have to work as hard?
Sandi: No. Like some people who are just on the fence, it doesn’t matter one way or the other, he leaves them alone. They say we don’t have no trouble with satan, or lucifer, we don’t have no trouble with him. Well of course not, you’re not doing anything to get in trouble. It’s getting in trouble that means you’re doing something right, because you’re at least standing for your own principals. If you’re a Christian, stay there, don’t just go back and forth. And people don’t even realize they are, but they do, because they want to please - don’t want to make any waves. You better be making pretty big ones, on halloween - that’s a soar subject for me, I just can’t - I’m sorry, but I can’t see why a church would even consider it, even an alternative party. You want a part for your kids do it some other time, there’s lots of other days. Pull the kids together and just say lets get together this weekend. Like Friday night at the church Hall or whatever you call it, just for fun, just to be together. But not for an alternative for halloween. No. Shouldn’t even be there, but that’s my option.

Coming to Jesus

Katie: How did you come to Jesus?
Sandi: I came to Jesus - I moved up here, because I retired from my job. I was in Arizona. I came up here and I was staying with my foster brother’s daughter, for four months until I could get in this apartment. And because she went to church, after a month I decided - it was like - I better go out of courtesy. Cause I was living with someone who went to church, right. So that’s how I started going, October three years ago. And then the pastor of the church and his wife they just talking to me, asking me where I came from decided to help me.
Ruth: Didn’t you have a vision?
Sandi: When I left The Brotherhood, I left on a whim. We were in a regular meeting on a Friday night, like every other Friday night, and a light came down through the ceiling and it just came across the room like a number two pencil line, small light. But we kept our room dark only with candle light, and here come this light streaming down through the ceiling, down, down, down, and went right into my being, and right at the same time something spoke to me and said you’re leaving. And I was so afraid of it - I was afraid other people would hear it you know, but I heard it, you’re leaving. And that was in January, and three months later I was gone. I had to make a plan for myself, how am I going to do this? But it was so compelling to leave, that I couldn’t get it out of my mind. Terribly compelling. And so I saved up some money those three months, and I got a thing in the mail, my niece was getting married, in Park City, Utah, I was in Seattle, and they lived in Arizona, but they chose to get married in Park City, Utah, and so I was invited to the wedding. So I went. And I kept on going and I went to Arizona.
Ruth: So you didn’t take anything from your house?
Sandi: Just enough, looked like a weekend. And off I went, knowing I wasn’t coming back. So I got to Arizona on a Tuesday and Wednesday morning I went and applied for a job I saw in the paper, got the job and went to work on Monday. And I was there all those years until I came up here.
Ruth: So it was 12 years or so?
Sandi: Yeah.
Ruth: And you kinda spent those years not in The Brotherhood, but in a sense in limbo, and trying to stay away from them and not get caught, right?
Sandi: Yeah, and having a lot of problems with that of course. And then I thought well where do I find this light, it was so compelling, and so supernatural. So I thought, because I didn’t know what to call it, I called it the People of the Light. Where are these People of the Light? I went to some churches when I was in Arizona; they asked me did I go to church. Yeah, I went - well what was the name of it; and I told them and right then, sorry!
One minister asked me to come late and leave early so I wouldn’t talk to nobody. Told me to talk to nobody because he didn’t want me to infect his crowd. But he didn’t feel he could kick me out. Others were blatant enough to say, I’m sorry but we can’t deal with you here. So I was still all this time I was looking for the People of the Light, but I was also working an awful lot, so it wasn’t like continual, like I had time for it all the time, but all through the time I was in Arizona, I got rejected basically. So I still expected it, but still wondered where it was. So then I was at this church, oh I don’t know, a few weeks and asked the pastor are you the people of the Light? And he said yes! And it’s like he didn’t even ask me what in the world are you talking about or anything. He just said yes. So I’ve kinda been there ever since.
Ruth: And it wasn’t too long after that, that you asked Jesus in your heart, right?
Sandi: It wasn’t long after that. I can’t remember now. It’s been a hard row to hoe, but it’s been worth it.
Katie: How has your life changed since you met Jesus?
Sandi: More peaceful, cleaned up, made a home, got friends, a value, well - it’s just a whole new lifestyle. It’s - I mean - look, I keep the lights on and the window open, and the curtains open, and it’s just whole different, everything about it. My life is different.

Harry Potter


Katie: What’s your opinion on Harry Potter?
Sandi: Oh, forget Harry Potter. My opinion is, they should have never wrote it. They should never have these movies, and satan’s just lov’in it. Anything from that part of the world. It’s been awful, because it really attacks kids - you know, young, young teens and pre-teens. It’s just awful! I just can’t image in happening but it sure did. I don’t think Christians should let their kids read it but. It’s too full of curses and séances, and things that are different than we should be doing and certainly shouldn’t be messing with.
Katie: Why do you think the books and movies are so popular?
Sandi: Cause it attracts kids - for one thing, it’s got kids in it their own age, so that it’s attractive to start out with. And then they are really introducing another spiritual life out there, that - sad to say, should never happen. But it did, and it went off like wildfire. And even in the church! No, no, no.
Ruth: Are they praying in The Brotherhood, that our thinking would be clouded?
Sandi: Oh yeah! They could get a whole generation that way without any effort.
Ruth: So if they can pray and see a book like this make kids think, oh - that’s ok, then they could just make it so the kids won’t see clearly the distinction between good and evil like in Malachi 3.
Sandi: Right, it’s just a story, but they don’t realize the spirit that gets into their little selves. And each book and each movie, has more intenseness to it, so it sneaks up on them, and they don’t even realize it. I heard one lady on TV say, Oh I’m glad my kids are reading these books, because I couldn’t get them to read anything. But they’re reading those books alone; I mean they’re 900 page books. They’re huge for kids, but boy - they’re soaking them up. And I thought, oh, it’s just Satan’s tricks. I don’t agree with it.
Ruth: And those curses they say in them are they for real?
Sandi: They’re for real; they all have some reality to them. And just enough so the kids go home and start doing it themselves and all you’re doing is inviting demon activity into your own life. And then when the kids get a few years older, the parents wonder, what happen to their kids. Without even realizing they bought them the book. Not even thinking. No, no this is for kids. My nephew, for instance he was 10 then, 5th grade when some of those books were coming out, and his mom wanted to buy him one. Oh, no mom, I don’t want no Harry Potter book. He just did that on his own. No, no, I don’t want no Harry Potter book. She bought it anyway; thinking he would read it any way. No, he wouldn’t have nothing to do with it. So she started reading it. And so he was all upset just to have that book in the house. So he comes home from school one day just all upset, because his teacher would read a chapter a day out of a book. Then the book ran out and so then got a new one to start it, and what was it - Harry Potter. In his classroom, he couldn’t get away from it. He was devastated, that boy. And nobody told him to not like that book, maybe the Holy Spirit spoke to him, because he lives in a muslim home. So his mom did finally get rid of the book. She said I can’t imagine it upset him so much, but if it does, she honored that much. She just thought she was doing him a favor - all the kids are readying Harry Potter. Because he was all in to pokemon too. And so she thought, this is great. But then the kid didn’t want it, bless his heart. Because they’re not being brought up Christian. They go to their friends’ house, that are Catholic, and their cross on the wall with a body on it, and he says, who’s that? And his mom says, that’s Jesus. Then they went in the bedroom to look at something, and look there’s another one, and he said mom, who’s that? She says, I told you that’s Jesus. No mom, he’s in the other room. He’s just trying to sort out. But he has a hunger, really for Christianity, but he just doesn’t know it yet. The Holy Spirit can speak to kids even when you can’t be there to talk to them, and that’s our job, I think. To help kids out - when prayer is helping them out. Your neighbors or whoever you know that’s influenced by that stuff, prayer will work. Cause it sure worked with my nephew.
Ruth: When we were in Japan as missionaries, you were in Japan too? But we were working on the opposite sides, huh?
Sandi: Yeah.
Katie: What were you doing there?
Sandi: Teaching people about demons, personalities of demons and what demons would be good for them. I think I had a bigger congregation.
Katie: So, pokemon was really big in Japan at that time too, right?
Sandi: Yeah, cause that’s where it started from. I know my my pastor and his wife said, you were in Japan too?
Ruth: We were talking that one time that while we were praying that kids would hate it, you were praying that it would…..
Sandi: ……take off like wildfire. So, when pokemon kinda wore down they put on a second pokemon - more characters, but that didn’t go over as well. It just kinda fizzled out, and pretty soon Harry Potter showed up. Oh, well, if they don’t want cartoony things maybe they want reality. So we got these cute little kids in there, and right their ages, and yep that sure took off. satan is subtle. I mean the church world all knows that, but he’s sneaking and subtle. And he never tires. He never gets tired of doing anything. We shouldn’t be surprised. If he can get your kids he’s got a whole generation.
Katie: Was the Harry Potter book anything you prayed for in The Brotherhood or would you strive for different thing like that?
Sandi: Different thing like that yes, but not knowing it was going to be Harry Potter. But it was sort of exciting when it did happen. It was like, whoa, this is perfect. And that kind of thing.
Katie: So right when Harry Potter came out, you said……..
Sandi: ……oh, this is an answer to prayer, just like Christians would say about things. Oh, this is great, and thank lucifer all over again. It’s just church turned around. Except the loyalty isn’t the same.
Ruth: Christians aren’t as loyal?
Sandi: Not the ones I’ve seen. I’m sure there are some - very loyal Christians, but I haven’t run across them in that respect. That’s pretty hard to say in case someone’s listening.
Katie: We kinda talked about this a little already, but the spell and curses in the books, are you familiar with them?
Sandi: Spells and curses in the book? No, I didn’t read the book. But, I just skimmed through it. But anytime you can put spells and curses on anyone it’s like to your benefit. It’s sort of like, the zeal, it’s like you’re doing what you’re suppose to do.
Katie: By putting spells and curses on people?
Sandi: Yes. Like, they had me - could you believe - work at the local hospital. I got hired to work in the nursery. When the babies are delivered I was the one who took them to the nursery, and cleaned them up. Oh, I was pleased. So I could curse these babies. Put hardships on them, you know curse them. Clean them all up give them back to their moms. It’s awful! I’ve had to repent a lot. But when it was your job and you were full of zeal - you just did it. I mean, it could have been the other way around if you were Christian, but blessings on the little babies instead of curses. Then the baby goes home he’s cranking and fussing and nobody knows how to handle them, they get tired of them, and shake them, slap them, baby gets worse - I mean it upset the whole household. And that was there purpose. But they never tire of curses. It’s like you go out at night, and you, take a map - like this was a map of Lynden, and you cut it into pieces and everybody would get a chunk, and that was your responsibility. You can go every night, to part of that - you know, and go down the allies and main streets and where ever and curse every single house. And you’d get up in the morning all grumping and ugly - go to work all nasty; it ruins your whole day, and you wonder what happen. So Christians should get up in the morning and say Lord, here I am help me if anything happened in the night take it away. Because it’s happening; believe me. It’s happening at your house and your house. When your turn comes and they come out every night. They might be in a different part of your street or a couple blocks over, but they’re out there. Faithful, that’s one of the things they love to do and are very faithful at. And they cover our nation that way. Absolutely.
Katie: Did you do some of that too?
Sandi: Oh, yeah, I loved doing it. It felt like you were doing something worth while.
Katie: So you would go out almost every night?
Sandi: Yeah, You were awake more in the night then you were in the day time. Go home and sleep a couple hours and go to your job. You come home from your job, sleep a couple hours and get up and go do the ritual stuff or whatever was going on. You know your whole world was turned different. All for the zeal for satanism. All the years I lived there - I never got tired of it. You just don’t. Somebody’s got you pumped up with zeal, you don’t tire. It’s just different.

Influence in our community – What can we do?

Katie: What are some other things or events in our culture today that the enemy is using?
Sandi: All our government have satanists in them. Even up here in the border, there’s some border patrol that belong to the group. They’re just everywhere. But you see that’s been established quite a while ago. Everybody’s in place. That’s the hard part.
Katie: So it’s mainly people that have been in there 20-30 years? Do they kinda train up other people to take their place?
Sandi: Yeah, eventually. You go up there and good old Joe say, hello how are you doing? And you’d never suspect him. But when you drive away you should say - tell the Lord to bless your car all over again. You just never know. There’s just ordinary people just like you and me. You never know what their doing.
Katie: So are their quite a bit in the police department?
Sandi: Yes, Attorneys, doctors, like I said before.
Katie: Interesting doctors, huh? They would perform surgery, but do they hope things don’t go well?
Sandi: Probably. Or decide this person isn’t worthwhile. Things like that. And then they have their own doctors, for when they have babies in the house or someone breaks their leg. Emergancies like that. They work out at a job, but they take care of their own. If a baby’s born there’s no birth certificate, if they’re sacrificial babies. Things like that. Nobody ever knows.
Katie: So if there is a pregnant woman in the group, would they know before hand that this was going to be a sacrificial baby or would they know if they want to keep the baby?
Sandi: If it’s a sacrificial baby - they know ahead of time.
Ruth: Because it was created for that purpose?
Sandi: Yeah. It was conceived for that reason.
Katie: What do you think is the biggest threat to The Brotherhood or the occult?
Sandi: The biggest threat? The only threat I can ever see being a threat is the Christian world or even just a group - just stand up and don’t take any more of their stuff. How do you do that? I don’t know. Not giving in to - how you feel like you think it’s your own thought, but it isn’t. Like when you’re cranking in the morning, and you think how come I’m so cranking this morning, I had a good sleep. And recognize where it could have come from. And start your day all over again. Say, Lord, help me today, I don’t feel right I think a curse came on me in the night. Otherwise it hangs on you all day, and you never accomplish much. Maybe with your job you did. But you’re just like dragging your feet all day, and the happiness is gone. You were robbed. If you could think of it as being robbed, then it may be more clear. Things like that. It’s the small subtle things that he gets the Christians with. If you can’t be productive then he’s happy.
Ruth: What can the church do?
Sandi: The church can recognize that, I guess. If the church could really recognized that and in their meetings talk about it a little more. And teach people how to or what to recognize, and what is just plain physical - you know, but recognize the spiritual things - what is spiritual attack. Because if you know when the Holy Spirit comes and speaks to you it’s very soft and gentle and you never forget it. You know - and nobody can talk you out of it. But when it comes to satanic attacks, you’re not sure what, you’re just like - oh, I just don’t feel right today, I’m kinda out of sync. Not realizing that a lot of that comes from satan.
Ruth: So you’re saying when there is that muddled feeling of not feeling right, that could be an indication of a spiritual attack?
Sandi: It could be very much so. Because of all that cursing in the night. Because even when we would get done at night when we gathered before we’d go to bed, we’d just put our maps together and do an over all thing, and just curse them in general. Because not all of them you could get to in one night. So you would just in general -just curse, curse, curse.
Ruth: So the cursing, you know how when we pray for people or bless them we lay our hands on them and pray for them. Is it just opposite of that?
Sandi: It’s exactly opposite. Except it’s for - well blessing you always think of something being happy or whatever, but cursing you automatically think it wrong and dark, and ones light.
Ruth: Did you use chants?
Sandi: A lot of times, and sometimes just verbal, just statements, like - just turned around from Christianity.
Katie: What kind of presence of The Brotherhood or occult is in Whatcom County?
Sandi: I’m not real familiar with it, but my friend is and she says it’s huge in Whatcom County. And in Skagit county and Whatcom County - it’s huge. She’s told me quite a few things over the passed few months. But I’m only going by what she knows.
Ruth: Is she a part of it?
Sandi: No, its Sue, She’s an expert here to help people out of the occult. So she knows and she says there’s a lot here.
Katie: Do you have a favorite passage of scripture?
Sandi: No, cause I don’t know that many, but the one I do know is John 3:16. “For God so loved the world”. And when I think of the world, I think of everyone who’s in it. Not, just good fine Christian people, but it indicates that He loves the world, everybody, every person. So that is comforting. Even in my state of horror, He loved me. He’s not holding any of if against me where I lived. And that was a real blessing, to know that God in Heaven could look past what I’ve done and where I’ve been, and I say I love you and I sing over you. Things like that. So He loved the world.
Katie: Did you have a concept of God when you were in The Brotherhood? Was God the enemy?
Sandi: God was the enemy.
Ruth: What about Jesus?
Sandi: The only thing I knew about Jesus was at our front door. And when you came in it, there was a big open space as big as this room, and there was a big circle painted on the floor. And they said that was Jesus’ blood, and to wipe your feet in the blood. It wasn’t blood, it was painted, but it signified that. And one time I said why? I didn’t understand why. And whoa - did I get in trouble. So I only asked once.
Katie: And they never told you why?
Sandi: Nope.
Ruth: Yeah, why Sandi, did you ever figure it out?
Sandi: Well, I know why now. It’s Jesus blood has a lot of power, and what they were doing is basically - it didn’t matter about wiping your feet on it - as you wanted to stomp out the power.
Ruth: Stomp out the power or steal the power?
Sandi: Stomp it out. Cause lucifer realizes, which I didn’t know then - the blood of Jesus Christ is stronger than anything he had, so they want to stomp it out, thinking they could do it. But I don’t think so now. But it seemed like the idea was right, to come up with that idea and thought it’d work. But as we know it doesn’t. But that’s how much they hate Jesus. Stomp out his power. And then when He died on the cross. We were taught He died on the cross - I mean He died. Everyone knows He died, but that He didn’t rise again. That He was dead. So that was a big surprise. Big surprise. So he does have more power than this world offers, He’s just kinder about it. He loves.
Katie: Where you kinda taught to hate?
Sandi: Oh yeah, I was a good hater.
Katie: But you loved your group?
Sandi: Oh, Loyal to the group.
Ruth: Loyal or did you love them?
Sandi: We didn’t use that word (love), just loyal to them, to the group as a whole. What our missions where and stuff. We didn’t care; we didn’t use the word love. I’ve heard it more up here the passed few years than I’ve heard it in my life.
Katie: Did you have any interaction with the Bible?
Sandi: If they got one they tore it up – see; we have more power. Tore it up and burned it. But I only saw that two or three times.
Ruth: Did they ever use parts of scripture and pray against it?
Sandi: No, I don’t remember it that way.
Ruth: You told me about waking up talking about lucifer, going to bed talking about lucifer.
Sandi: Yeah, we did, it’s such a devotion, it’s just your whole life. I was thinking when I became a Christian, I was gonna turn over and I was going to be the same way and all the people around me where gonna be the same way. Like that loyalty thing - where we couldn’t talk enough about God and Jesus and Heaven. This is all gonna change and it all turn around, and I was just gonna - boom, have that same loyalty, and that same – but, it’s not happened. I’m not sure about what happened, why it didn’t or was my expectation too much.
Ruth: Remember what you said, about coming back to church and people are still
Sandi: Whining - still wanting their same hug. That’s what I finally decided, that’s what it was all about. People have such lack in their own lives, that that two minute hug from people at church was all they needed. But instead of taking that same problem and stresses to God, they bring it back to church again to get that little hug. But they really needed to get a hug from Jesus. It would be more lasting, and more life giving. Sure people can hug us and it feels good, or has a reason, but it’s not the same as getting a hug from the Holy Spirit - then you know you’ve been hugged. It’s different, just different. Actually, I’m so disappointed because I’ve gotten really slack on my own self, I feel like I’m falling into the same behavior because that’s the behavior that’s expected. And I’m not happy about it at all.
Ruth: Yeah, there’s a difference about when you first came into Church.
Sandi: Oh, yeah, I wouldn’t miss a meeting, and now I think of reasons not to go. I wouldn’t miss nothing for nothing. I wanted to be right there in the front row. I wanted to absorb it all.
Ruth: And you’d get so frustrated when people were looking at their watches waiting for church to get over.
Sandi: I did, it was way different, now I’ve kinda slid into the same, because that’s expected. These Christians say that new Christians should all be put away for 6 months, then they end up acting like everybody else. And I’m really disappointed in myself. So I’ve kinda fallen into the same thing - my attitude anyway. I don’t care about the hugs. I wish it didn’t happen. And the Bible - you should see my bible, it’s so marked up I can’t get enough of that Bible. And I hope that never changes. Then I’m it trouble if that changes. So why do you want to go or why would a person want to go when it’s - or there’s nothing there. I say that to the wrong people I could be in trouble but that’s the way I feel about it. But just so I don’t get tired of the Bible.

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Thursday, October 29, 2009

Halloween & the Occult

Hi Beloved,

Here we are again... another fall. Beautiful fall with all its glory. Wonderful bounty, plentiful harvest.... and then sickness and hallo-ween. We are "ween"ed off hallo-ween.

I know that Halloween is a controversial issue for Christians. So in light of the season, I thought I would stick my neck out there and share our convictions on the topic.
Here is our story:
Isaac and I have gone back and forth over the years as to whether or not let the kids dress up and go trick or treating. When we were first married and for years we didn't participate in any type of Halloween traditions, other than going to the pumpkin patch. Once Kelsey was 2 we decided to start having close friends who also don't celebrate it over for games. We would pass on candy with bible verses attached to be a light. But that was the extent. Then a few years ago when Kelsey was 7 and going to a Christian school... we felt pressured into letting the kids dress up and go to the harvest party at school. Then we did our first trick or treating experience.. reluctantly I must say, but still tried to make it fun, for the sake of fun. While the kids liked getting the candy... they all agreed they never wanted to trick or treat again. People and houses were "too scary." It just convinced us more that we didn't want to participate in Halloween. On top of that, because of our health conscious diet... we had to ration the candy and then they forgot about it after a couple of days and didn't desire it anyway. This year our church is having our first Reformation Party... unfortunately we won't be going since we are all too sick with this swine flu.

Since we have been sick we have been listening to audio tapes and watching videos... then good old mom got sick and we went to just videos... then I got sick of our videos and we tried to see if anything was good on TV... I should have known better. There is hardly ever anything healthy for the mind on Television. It is even harder for the Christian when every commercial sells sex, drugs, lingerie (porn), witchcraft, animist ism, homosexuality, cursing, betrayal (adultery), lieing (teenagers to parents/kids to parents/ kids to kids/ wives to husbands/husbands to wives), liberal agenda, birth control (rejecting God's blessings/ not too mention health risks- don't get me started) since I don't see TV very often I was sick of it within a a few minutes and quickly shut it off. Usually if there is something we want to watch we record it and then when we watch it, we fast forward through the commercials. (Usually it is fox news...sometimes 18 kids and counting)... I was just so disgusted. I was shocked by how bad things have gotten... it is so difficult to raise godly righteous children in such a fallen and perverse world. AS Christians we are so easily, tempted into believing falsities... we don't even realize how much of what our core beliefs we molded by the government and there agendas, the media and their agendas. Though this life has been a fallen life since the fall of Adam and Eve, we are living in a different day today then even 15 years ago, 30 years, 60 years ago. It is no wonder that most of the children raised in the christian church of today fall away from their faith by the ages of 19-21. What can we do about it? I suggest for one thing we try with all the strength of the Lord to stand firm, then stand firm, and when we are sick and tired, stand firm more. One way we can stand firm is by standing up for the Lord and standing against what opposes God... witchcraft is one of those that oppose God. If we as Christians do not stand apart and look different how can we be any different... how will our children ever be any different.... if what they see is the same as the culture. We teach our children not by just our words, but more through our actions... what we do as well as what we do not do. I am opposed to participating in Halloween however, we have something more exciting to celebrate on that same day that is worth celebrating. Especially in light of the politically issues endangering our spiritual freedoms today. Oct.31 was first (before Halloween came about) celebrated as All Saints Day... Reformation day!
I suggest we take this opportunity to actively teach our children about the reformation as well the spiritual numbness of society. Teach them about the spiritual battle we are living in and how visible it is in the weeks leading up to this pagan ritualistic holiday. We as Christians are told by God to flee from all evil. We need to flee from this evil as much as possible because it is everywhere.

Recently a respected woman at church sent me an email about Halloween & the Occult. You can read it here to see it. It is a concise article with tons of scripture worth your time.

http://www.teachinghome.com/nlimages/fall_nl.jpg

over all I believe God calls us to be a light to this world, but I don't feel consciously clear by participating in a pagan holiday. That's just me. I haven't for a long time. If you believe the false thinking of pagans who say... "that's not being a light. That makes you look judgemental"... you are taking advice from the world. They are claiming judgemental ism in order to get you to stand down from you faith so they can justify their lack of it. When in reality aren't they judging you for saying "NO." Whatever happened to "JUST SAY NO." We as Christians say yes too often to the world to make them feel comfortable... but then we loose our "saltiness" and the bible says in Matt 5 "You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt looses its saltiness, it is worthless and should be thrown out." I don't want to be salt-less. Do you?

Tell me what you think!


Happy Reformation Day is Oct 31, 2009!

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Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Austin's Stuffed Apples!



A few nights ago Austin and I made these stuffed apples with left over pie crust dough....
they turned out soooo yummy!





Here is the recipe:
4 apples
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup walnuts (chopped up)
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup butter or margarine

Core out the apples, mix all the ingredients together and stuff the apples. Wrap the apples in pie dough, bake in a buttered dish at 375 degrees for 17 minutes.

Enjoy!


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Austin's 1st Building Project!




Tonight Austin finished his first Sailboat!


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Saturday, October 10, 2009

Phillip Foster Farm



We had a great day at Phillip Foster Farm on Friday!










For all of you who couldn't make it...
WE MISSED YOU!

Maybe Next Year!


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Thursday, October 1, 2009

It's Officially Fall


Luke Loves tomatoes...
look at all the seeds on him from eating them as I pick them!
You would think they were berries!

Hopefully there will be enough left for tomato sauce?:)


Sept.22 was the first day of fall and so to my "little lambs" that means time to pick the pumpkins and most of our squash!

Here they are...

Our Angiosperms that we germinated and scarified and transplanted and now finally harvested!



We have been doing "Exploring Creation's" Botany Science Book along with our Creation videos.
So much cool stuff to learn while we get to "experience it first hand!"

I am so blessed to have my children home with me.
I pray this is a gift that they have the freedom to experience with their own children. Who knows but that the things we take for granted may not always be here for us in the future!
Let us lay our hope and trust in HIM who will provide the strength in these uncertain times our country is in. Let us keep diligently on our knees for our leaders, our country, our rights, and our freedoms.


Well here is the biggest pumpkin weighing in at 88lbs.
This Giant Atlantic didn't get to be 600lbs like the package said it could but we are happy with almost 100!
Next year we want to try it again and actually take care of it... feed it fertilizer and water it when it is hot (we didn't do very good at that this past month). Plus while turning it... it kind of got detached from the vine a month ago.

Great Fun!


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Monday, September 28, 2009

A Must Have for your Family DVD Library

Here it is... this is a MUST HAVE FOR YOUR DVD LIBRARY!
If you don't have the chance to hear this talk given by Ken Ham then you should definitely invest the $15
on the DVD titled:

"RAISING GODLY CHILDREN IN AN UNGODLY WORLD"

This is hands down the best, most thorough talk I have EVER heard on the topic of family and the Bible. I think I have a new modern day hero folks.
Ken and his colleagues have dedicated their lives to equipping the saints to raise up godly offspring who know what scripture says in science and many other areas as well.
I am so thankful to them and their families for making the sacrifices they did and do to produce these videos, curriculum kits, books, and of course the CREATION MUSEUM!
May the Lord pour out His spiritual Blessings on them!

I love listening to sermons and such, but honestly this 60 minute DVD is packed with everything you would need to combat those pessimistic views towards home schooling and pagan views towards Christianity and Creationism.

It is biblically educational as well as empowering... I am sure that for those that are not already trying to follow Christ in the family would feel convicted, but it is such an encouragement to hear someone preaching a non watered down biblical word... isn't it?!
If you home school your children you have no doubt heard other Christians try to make you feel like you are not fulfilling the Great Commission by home schooling. They pull out the "SALT of the Earth" parable. I have always known in my head, like everyone does that children are impressionable and aren't mature enough to stand strong when they are surrounded by pagan beliefs and culture. I have often rebutted that arguement by saying things like..." Jesus sent out HIs disciples 2 by2 and they were adults who walked with HIm and learned from him for about three years... and they still fell to sin and claimed to not know him under pressure... how much more will a child fall to sin and temptation?"
Now, though, after watching this video, I have scripture and more points to the "arguement." I don't intend on "sharing" them unless I am "attacked" ... if you know what I mean. It is so hard to stay strong in your convictions when family and the world around is telling you, you are extreme or wrong or that "it is not for everyone."
I have to share the last part of the "SALT" parable...
Ken went directly to the scripture in
Matthew 5:13
"You are the salt of the earth, but what good is salt if it has lost it's flavor? Can you make it salty again? It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless."

Mark 9:50
"Salt is good for seasoning, but if it looses its flavor, how do you make it salty again? You must have the qualities of salt among yourselves and live in peace with each other."

Look at the rest of this passage on being the salt of the earth. The Lord clearly warns us to have saltiness in us first... and if we loose it we are worthless for the Kingdom work!
Are children salt of the earth when they are born?
Well if you believe that all babies are born sinful like the Bible teaches then that means they need to be taught and be filled with the "SALT", which as the Bible clearly states is the primary job of the parents.

Now if I send my semi salty or partially filled salt shakers into a pagan environment... they are no doubtingly going to become flavorless in a matter of time based upon the fact that they are not learning the Word of God at school, in fact they would be learning the opposite and then I would have a few hours at the end of every night, to detox my child and relay the foundations they spent 6-7 hours earlier that day learning.
WOW!

If this is encouraging to you... the whole DVD is and I would recommend you get it.
Funny thing the DVD is at least 15 years old, maybe more... but still so relevant and motivating.
Isn't God's Word GREAT! It Never changes!

So here is where you can get it:
www.answersingenesis.org




AS I read through and watch the other materials we purchased I will let you know if there are other great ones you "NEED."

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Sunday, September 27, 2009

Guest Speaker Ken Ham on CREATION

This Weekend!Eating dinosaur

I know this is last minute, but I don't like promoting things unless I have seen it or heard of it from people I know well.

Ken Ham
From the Creation Museum
is Speaking this weekend... today and tomorrow @
Rolling Hills Church in Tualatin, Or

We went to hear him this morning.
He spoke on "Answers from Genesis on Darwin and Culture Wars"

6pm TONIGHT
"DEFENDING CHRISTIANITY FROM TODAY'S SECULAR ATTACKS"

7:30PM TONIGHT
"THE ULTIMATE PROOF OF CREATION"
BY DR. JASON LISLE

TOMORROW
9AM-10:30AM
"DINOSAURS, GENESIS & THE GOSPEL"
for grades K-6

11AM
"HOW TO DEFEND THE CHRISTIAN FAITH BIBLICALLY AND SCIENTIFICALLY"
grades7-12

6:30PM
"ANSWERS FOR RACISM:DARWIN AND EVOLUTION'S RACIST ROOTS"

8PM
"THE DARWIN CONNECTION TO ASTRONOMY"


NO CHILDCARE
ADMISSION FREE
DONATION BASKET

THEIR WEBSITE FOR MORE INFO:
ANSWERS IN GENESIS

At Rolling HIlls Church
3550 SW Borland Rd
Tualatin, Or 97062

This morning was an awesome talk, my kids LOVED it and we found ourselves investing in some material to teach more on this at home!

I would highly encourage you all to go!

Hope to see you tonight or tomorrow

Ok, I am back... we just got back from tonight's session and once again another stimulating experience! After going to this session I already have a new confidence that I have not had before on this particular topic. Being raised in the "church" I never new any of what was presented. I am so excited and so are my kids. We invested in both libraries because I am now changing my fall curriculum. My six year old loves dinosaurs... we are running with it and teaching all five kids "WHY Creationism" and because our "STARTING POINT" is "GOD"S WORD."
If this sounds interesting to you... please come tomorrow to at least one of the four sessions... it will change your legacy that you leave with your children and potentially generations.
We as a church need to actively raise up sold out for Christ children who are leaders and movers and changers for the kingdom. We need to take things like science and creationism head on... not sweep it under a carpet becasue we don't know all the answers. Maybe God will reveal some to them!

I am so empowered... if you need that kind of refreshing empowerment...COME!
See you tomorrow!

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Monday, September 21, 2009

All of You Who Prayed...

Thank you to all of you who prayed!


I want to say a special thanks to all of you who prayed for Isaac and I this past weekend as I went with him to his end of summer conference in Las Vegas.
Every Year the company has a conference here this same weekend... which happens to also be our Anniversary Weekend!
So this year I was especially blessed to be able to go be with my husband.


Thank you to my mom and sister Katie for watching all our precious treasures from Friday through Sunday night. You both have given our marriage a very special gift in serving us in this way.
I know the children loved spending that time with you as well.

And to all of you who knew my heart for going with my husband to support him and fulfill being his helpmeet in the fullest sense... thank you for your consistent prayers! God was there with us the whole way.
From the plane ride there, where we created our Family Crest and Mission ...to loving people at the conference... listening to them... encouraging some in their faith and being so blessed by those life long
friendships rekindled...to having the blessing of "being there" to lay hands on Isaac and pray over my him before he gave the wrap up message. Thank you for your prayers!

God was so good to us... we came away so blessed... in our marriage as well as work.

Thank you to my hubby who, in all his business of the weekend found time to surprise me with these beautiful flowers for our anniversary! I love You Isaac!

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The Best is Yet to Come

September 19th!
Our Ten Year Wedding Anniversary!
THEN!
NOW!


HERE ARE OUR BIGGEST BLESSINGS IN THE PAST 10 YEARS!The past ten years have been full of the Lord's blessings and provisions as well as productive growth & ministry. I eagerly look forward to the next 90 years with you Isaac!




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Wednesday, September 16, 2009

The 10 Pounder!




That's Right!
Ten Pounds!



We are going to have a lot of zucchini bread!


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Homegrown Popcorn





One of our long term Home school experiments was to grow our own popcorn.
It all started last spring when we germinated and planted the corn seed last April.
Then we transplanted into our little garden and 3.5 weeks we harvested it.
Finally, yesterday we popped it.

It was beautifully White little kernels of popcorn.
It feels so satisfying to have completed this project.

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Tomato TIme

Praise be to the Lord for tomatoes!



We have plenty of them, but this year I decided to make sauces, lots of sauces. I got this most amazing tomato saucer and it is soooo GREAT! It is a time saver. You just throw the tomatoes in and watch it make sauce... no seeds, no skin,; beautiful sauce. Then we add diced shallots, onions, lots of garlic, fresh basil, parsley, rosemary, and oregano sauteed to the sauce and bring to a boil for 30 minutes, then simmer until thickened! Then we pour it into our freezer containers and wahlah! Sauce for spaghetti, pizza, minestrone soup, and much more!

And to think we still have hundreds of tomatoes to harvest.

Kelsey is having a blast learning all about preserving tomatoes and helping with every aspect of the harvest... while Austin is more into picking, eating and saucing them. He thinks the "SQUISHER" is so cool!Check out our Giant Atlantic Pumpkin!
It is already about 60-75 lbs...
Guessing!

And just think we still have a couple months left!Corn! Three different kinds...
He likes them all!

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Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Work Day


Today was a very productive day at our home!
We had piano lessons, harvested tomatoes and made sauces to freeze, we read, we studied God's Word, we took care of the animals, we cleaned, studied snakes, read the Dangerous Journey,
& STACKED A CORD OF CHERRY WOOD!
ONE CORD DOWN....


And ONE TO GO!

Then we are set for fire wood for the year! Yeah SAVE on Heating Bill!
I can't wait to have our first fire... I love the smell of a good fire in the morning while you are eating hot steel cut oats with lemon, apples, craisins and honey!

HMMM!

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Thursday, September 10, 2009

Tolpin Healthy Habits

I have shared many of the struggles I have had with health over the last few years and wanted to share with you the top ten healthy habits, or battles(if you will), I have chosen to adopt over the last year.

Disclaimer:
Of course, I am not anal about these... we do everything in our power to not let these things get in the way of fellowship with others...
In addition there have been seasons when I have not been as dedicated to some of these points as others (such as when the weather doesn't permit gardening, or when I am too ill to work out)
Also, some of these may change over the years... my vision though is to continue on this path so my children grow up as this being their normal lifestyle and so it is easier for them when they are raising their own children.

It is not easy making such changes... but it is fun and a part of the legacy we have chosen to pursue diligently.


Tolpin Healthy Habits

1. Exercise (spending more time active outside as well as swimming, using our tread climber when weather isn't as nice, and doing core strengthening exercises to rebuild what I have lost in child bearing- to strengthen my back)
2. Juicing & Smoothies (this has been such a great way to get a ton of our daily fruit and veggies in us)
3. Making Bread (the kids love to grind the wheat and help... very educational and yummy, not mention healthier)
4. Buying Local ( buying produce and meat and milk more locally tastes so good and I can ensure that it is healthier (I know where it has been))
5. Raw Milk (Wow, the taste is amazing... then there is the added health benefits)
6. Gardening, Preserving, Canning & Freezing (I have not successfully canned anything yet but have been reaping an awesome harvest and we have been preserving and freezing) (Next year I want to try Dehydrated)
7. Homeopathy (I am still learning and have so much to learn about this... but so far I have seen amazing results in treating my family at home- Naturally)
8. Dr.Zeff - our Modern Day Doc Baker
9. Kangen Water (Alkaline Water Filtration System - Ionizer- PH/Antioxidant) www.mykangentools.com
10. Enjoy Life - I have struggle with the sin of worry and stress often and have been "working" on not working so hard and letting things go...

Here are few resources I highly recommend:
This is an awesome resource for treating childhood wounds and sickness with Homeopathy. Easy to read and look up ailments... a great resource for anytime your child is sick... I love this little handbook... recommended by Dr.Zeff
Doctor Mom's Natural <span class=
Available only on Amazon... no longer in print, but I just bought a couple for under $2 each

These books were very helpful for understanding true companion planting...
I used this first book as my gardening bible this year
Carrots Love Tomatoes: Secrets of Companion Planting for Successful Gardening

Product Details
This Recipe Book is chalked full of great recipes for Juicing and Smoothies

Product Details
by Jack LaLanne

This Cookbook has totally shaken my thoughts on what "is" Healthy Cooking
This book really takes us back to the "old" way of doing many things but with reasons
Nourishing Traditions:  The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet <span class=


Billy Blanks - Tae Bo Kicks
Product Details
My kids and I have enjoyed this DVD for a couple years now...
A great way to get exercise on those rainy days

This book has been so convicting for me...

Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World: Finding Intimacy With God in the Busyness of Life (Revised Edition with New Bible Study)


We all have to choose our battles... because that is truly what the are.
Everything battles for your time and attention. Potentially taking you away from your families and the things that are most important. The key is to pursue these things as God allows. We are all on a different path and we should prayerfully consider which paths to pursue and not.
I want to encourage you that these habits have been carefully selected over the course of a year and motivated as a response to declined health.
I am thankful to the Lord that He has provided the mentors and resources to pursue health down these roads.
I think that sometimes God leads us through our pains to enlighten us and teach us.
I have had a testing year... and I am sure their will be more ahead as I grow older. I am excited to follow Jesus and watch Him do more miracles in my life and I surrender it to be used for his glory. I hope that somehow the struggles my family and I have suffered through this year can minister to you. I am posting this so that none of what I have been through or might go through goes in vain. To God Be the Glory!

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Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Friendships Made in Christ, Stay Firm in Christ

In light of the times we are living in, I recently wrote this letter to a few of my dear friends. Asking them to actively pray with me.
After being encouraged by two of these friends to share it with you all...
I am finally posting a copy of my letter in hopes that it will move many of you to action as well.

I am hoping that this email can prompt me, us, into deeper respect for one another as sisters in Christ.

Since you are all dear sisters in the faith of Jesus Christ...
I really want to put a hedge of protection around our friendships.
I feel very strongly that the evil one is having a hay day with many churches right now and ours is not being spared from it. Watching things unfold over the last 6 months has been a hard road. I can graciously praise God for all of you though. You have remained constant friends through it all; and I feel confident that you will remain constant. I want to address this with you women because you have each meant so much to me over the years. You are all so different and I love you for your differences. Like I said at dinner last week... "You all have impacted me in ways that have helped mold me to who I am today."
I want to continue growing together with you ladies by my side. I want to ask you guys, if you aren't already, to join me in fervent prayer not only for our church (because I am confident we are all already doing that), but for our friendships. I do not want to see tear the church apart, but the church is made up of its people. We are the church! I believe we are stronger together than apart. Let's choose to not let satan have his way with our friendship! Lets pray that God would allow us grace with one another to continue having beautiful, God glorifying fellowship regardless of which church we go to or our circumstances!

Isaac and I are dedicated to remaining faithful as friends and as members of the greater body of Christ. We will continue praying, pleading for the Lord Jesus to guide us and direct us clearly in where to be. We follow no mere man.... but Jesus! And we are learning to Fear NO Man as well.

With the turmoil of the church it would be easy to want to give up on it all. And just have church in our living room. For a season that may be appropriate; however, we know that God calls us all to be an active part of the body of Christ... serving, working together and sometimes recieving the blessing from others int he body. It is a protrayl of how the body works together on earth. With out the parts all working together we do not represent Christ fully. How can a fish swim with one fin or a bird fly with one wing? It is the same for the church. We all need to do our part. The thing God has called us to. Using the giftings He has given us! If we would all look at the work we have been commissioned to do here on earth. The true reason for our exisitence... And then act on that reality... then we might get somewhere. When people stop judging and start loving. We need to focus on Christ, knowing HIm deeply, and then be MOVED to act in service to Him and for Him. If staying in a church body ever means to sacrifice those things the Lord has impressed upon our hearts to hold most dear, then we will go where the Lord leads.... IF He Leads Us in that direction. But if not then we are called to bloom where we are planted. To serve where we are.
We currently are committed to praying for the church, the elders, the marriages, the friendships, the children (b/c they need it), the pastors and their families, and specifically against satan evil schemes. I believe we as women need to rise up as prayer warriors... and I am appealing to you to be on guard against any judging thoughts that might tempt you to judging me or any other friends that you hold dear. Recognize it as a spirit of pride (church pride) which is sinful and unhealthy. We are all sinners... thank the Lord He died for us to save us from it. A spirit of Judging will ruin friendships and I believe that is exactly what satan wants. I for one am not about to let him.

We are headed into an intense political and economic crisis in this country. Our rights are being threatened every day and I believe many could come to the Lord because of it (these are desperate times... and in desperate times people come to the Lord) ... but that is why satan doesn't want the church strong. He wants us to be internally focused and distracted from sharing the gospel. We can not allow him to win. We are running a different race. We are running for the Lord! The King of Heaven and Earth! The Lord of Lord! The Almighty, The alpha and Omega! We are adopted children into the family of God and we are FAMILY! Let us not forget we are FAMILY! Just as we would never allow our children to treat each other with disrespect or evil tongue, or even distrust, let's remember we are family and not allow our selves to be tempted to fall into that.

I love you! Each of you! You are Precious to me! I do not want what has been occuring at church to stifle our friendships... we need to be there for one another in good times and bad. Just as family... just as Jesus would!

I hope you join me in dedicated our friendships to the Lord through fasting and praying because our friendships will be tested if they haven't already and our friendships glorify HIm so of course we should expect the evil one to attack.

One thing I have always believed is that if you aren't serving the King of Kings, and you aren't a threat to satan, then satan won't attack and try to destroy. But if you are serving Jesus then expect persecution and trials... but keep perserving! In the end He will say "Well done good and faithful servant."

May we each be an encouragement to one another and love one another, praying diligently for one another and hoping for the Lord's best.
I pray you all are growing deeply in His Love and when we see each other again it is a special time of encouragement for one another.




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Thursday, September 3, 2009

Treating Mastitis

Natural Remedy for Mastitis:
(Nursing Breast Infection)

Echinacea Tincture (1 dropperful every 3 hours or as needed)

Emergence-C Packets (1 every 3-5 hours with water)
Phytolaca Decandra (Biorin pellets) (1 pellet under tongue, directly followed by Belladonna)
Belladonna (Biorin pellets) (1 pellet under tongue)

Use the homeopathy Biorin pellets as needed until you get a grip on the infection
I ususally put an hour between treatments unless it is really bad then only 30 minutes

In addition:
Eating cabbage raw or blanching cabbage leaves and applying them to the infected breast relieves pain and brings down inflamation

Hot water bottles are great to use before nursing your baby because it can help the milk flow more easily

Apply a couple treatments on Hydrotherapy...
go to my Doc Baker's website:
www.jaredzeff.com/hydrotherapy.html

Dr. Jared Zeff is a very trustworthy Naturapathic Doctor who gets my recommendation.
If you are looking for a doctor who cares like Doc Baker cared in Little House....
He is the doctor for you!

My Story of Health & Healing:
So over the past few years I have felt my health declining dramatically.
Having five babies in a row with not much of a break has been hard on me... as it would anyone.
As you know I do not have easy pregnancies.
I usually start having morning/day/and night sickness of the worst kind (intense vomiting) a few weeks after conception and it often lasts as long as the pregnancy... ending the birth process with one last upchuck. I have had two pregnancies were my vomiting wained at around 7-8 months.
The vomiting has been so sever that I usually have to get at least a few IVs for re hydration and in my last pregnancy back was thrown out (bulging herniated disc).
This last pregnancy I went to a Water birth Center (Andaluz), where I was treated by midwives. They helped me so much more than any midwife at a hospital or doctor ever did. I had tried all the treatments and expensive meds for nausea and vomiting and none of them worked (not to mention they were bad for me). They recommended I take phosphorus (Biorin). It worked amazingly!
Over the past 9 years of pregnancy and nursing I have increasingly struggled with getting mastitis as well. I have developed an allergic reaction to all cilin drugs so I am unable to take most antibiotics to treat this. That was my first motivation to finding an alternative route to treating myself. Then upon further studying I learned about yeast infections post antibiotics, I started trying to rebuild my system with Acidopholus (the good buggies... Flora in your intestines).
Chronic Fatigue, stiffness of joints and back, crankiness... All these symptoms began to hit me quickly. When I usually would recovered from childbirth and get my rythm back this last time I didn't experience that. I was exhausted physically. Of course that should be a bit expected since we as moms don't get much sleep.
After many misdiagnosis and feeling very discouraged I found Dr. Zeff. His preventative approach includes educating the patient to be more independent of their health. He mainly focuses on food intolerances and believes we are "toxic" if we are eating things our bodies can not properly digest. I will blog on this some other time, but for now I want to leave you with this:
My growth through this process has lead me to trusting in the Lord in a new way.
Anything can become an idol...
I have learned that in good health it is easy to serve and live in your own strength. I have been learning how to do those things in Christ's strength since I feel often like I have none of my own.
I am also LEARNING (this is taking a while for me) to not put busy-ness as a top priority. I hold a very high standard for myself ad my family in many areas such as cleanliness. I think I used to believe that old saying, "cleanliness is next to godliness." I have since slayed that dragon and am living much more joyfully in my clutter. To help with this process though, we did spend a few days de-cluttering. I want to continue this process in more areas of my home, but need to get well right now. I think that people get distracted from really knowing God and serving Him by taking "care" of the non-eternal "things" we own. I used to spiritualize it. I thought, if I can not take care of it, then I shouldn't have it, and I "need" it, so I have to take care of it. I need to be a good steward of the "blessings" He has given me. Which is true to a certain degree, but I also think that when we are so "blessed" and less "blessing" others it is easy to have too much to care for. That's what happened to me. My desire is to be available to God. To let him use me. If having so much stuff to take care of means not being able to hear Him or be available to Him. Then I don't want it!

It is easy to get consumed with food intolerances, or homeopathy, or healthy living (making bread, driving to buy raw milk, taking care of chickens, gardening, etc...). Be careful not to make them idols. I have struggled and fallen in this area. When I feel like all I am learning is how to care for my family. I believe that God doesn't want any of these things to come in the way of serving him or fellowshiping with others. We have to be aware of the fight we are in as Christians. The evil one wants to distract us from God and His service. When we get inward focused, we grow spiritually unhealthy. If we stay outward focused... serving others and loving people we can remain closest to God's heart.

Don't get me wrong taking care of our families is our high calling, it is our service, our mission. I just am speaking from the experience of getting so focused on health that it takes the place of studying God's word. When you get so tired from researching on the computer that you don't have the energy to open up the Word. Then there is a priority out of wack.
This was my mistake. Now, even though I feel the urgency to know how to cook for my family to meet their dietary needs, I am going about it at a slower pace... giving myself grace and allowing myself the time to learn because I need to keep God first. It is easy for me to get "addicted" to learning certain things. If I am not personally growing I get depressed. It is my conscience acknowledgement that I am in ever need of improvement and that God is never done with me.
So I have to be careful to not get distracted by worldly knowledge and focus on Christ.

"My sheep listen to my voice... NO one can snatch them out of my hand." John 10:27-28

"God who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies"
Romans 8:11

Jesus said, I am the resurrcetion and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies." John 11:25

I am mortal, we all are. Our bodies will fail us even when we take the best care we can. We do need to be good stewards of the temples He created so we can serve HIm to our fullest ability. However, we will not die before He calls us home. And He has the power to heal. Let us not forget that even with something like Mastitis God wants us to call out to HIm to heal us.
We all will perish, what I have been experiencing is the reality of a used, mortal body. But GOd can do miracles and He does. He likes to use people who are weak to glorify Himself. Well Lord, I am weak. Use Me!

May you have many blessings of health and spiritual growth!

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Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Farewell Kirsten

Farewell Dear Kirsten...
We will Miss You More than you will ever know!


This is Kirsten...

She has been our help throughout the summer and the past four years. It has been such a delight to watch her grow up. She began babysitting for us when Megan was a baby.

Now she is all grown up and headed off for Whitworth this week for her first year in College.

What a Blessing she has been. My marriage is so much stronger because of the date nights she helped make possible.

I can not begin to list the ways she has been a help to me as a mom of five very busy young children. When I have been ill this summer she has cared for them and when I have needed help around the house she has gladly served us. Dishes, laundry, you name it!

Thank you Kirsten we love you and will miss you immensely!




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Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Simplifying!


What a Relief...
Oh how I have wanted to simplify!
Every 6 months or so I go through the house with the intention of simplifying...
I have a long way to go but I have at least 4 rooms decluttered as of yesterday!
Oh boy does it feel good!
This always seems like a necessity for me as I am about to start a new school year with the kids; although we teach many things year round.
There is something to a clean sweep and decluttering all that excess stuff that 7 people can accumulate.
I recently became ill and the reality of the things that have to be taken care, cleaned and put away became very real to me because I was unable to clean much.
I realized that my children, as well as myself, were spending far too much time just taking care of our "things."
I just got tired of all the cleaning...
it was taking up too much of our time and we weren't able to spend as much time truely productive... in our fellowship with one another, the Lord, and others. It even prevented us from enjoying the good things we have been blessed with.
Less really is more!

What ideas do you have on simplifying or decluttering your home?


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Drew is 3!

Happy Birthday Drew!
Yep He's 3 years old as of yesterday!
This little man managed to potty train himself in 2 days last week...
just before he turned 3.

Thanks Tata Ambar for those Spiderman undies...
They were the motivation to go potty on the potty chair for the first time.
Drew hasn't looked back since.


How funny... how if you don't stress about it... they do it when they are ready!

Here is Drew on his date night out with Mom & Dad.

He is Sporting his new Carharts.

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Friday, August 21, 2009

Interview with Sally Falon

I would just like to share with you a neat interview I found this morning.
I was doing some grocery shopping at Azure Standard Online (bulk organic and pure shopping at affordable prices) and found a recent interview with Sally Fallon, Author of a book I am currently trying diligently to digest.
She is the author of Nourishing Traditions, a cookbook/ educational book on healthy diet. She teaches on subjects like Minerals and Vitamins, what the different ones are called, what they do for you and what foods the are primarily found in. Other topics includes Fats, Milk, Proteins, Enzymes, Beverages, Food Allergies and Special Diets, Cultured Dairy Products, Fermented fruits and Vegetables, Sprouted Grains and many more.

Sally's book is based off of research and a book the Weston A Price wrote in the 1940's.
Her interview talks about this history who he was and what he found.
The interview can be found here.

Here is a quote from the interview I found interesting:

"You might call the combination of high- vitamin cod liver oil and high-vitamin butter oil Dr. Price's magic remedy. It was the combination of these that he used with great success not only to reverse tooth decay, but to treat growth problems and bone problem; he even treated seizures successfully. The combination seemed to work for all sorts of health problems." Sally Falon

One piece of advise from Sally to Azure Custmers:
"Prepare, Cook, and Eat foods the way your ancestors did; meaning before the Industrial Revolution. In America, this may meaning going back quite a few generations."

For more information go to their foundations website...
www.westonaprice.org

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Tuesday, August 18, 2009

The BIG 30!

I AM 30!


I have to brag on my husband a bit here!
Friday morning my husband told me he didn't have time to plan anything for my 30th birthday because we already had soooo much going on this past weekend (1 family birthday party for all our August birthdays, 2 weddings, my brother's graduation party, and church). I didn't get upset but I have to admit I was a little disappointed
. After all, You only turn 30 once!

So apparently he proceeded to plan an amazing night for me in spite of all of that.

So here it is...

He didn't tell me anything much except that I need to be dressed up by 5:45pm.

Then THEY CAME!
Isaac rented a HUGE beautiful limo and got most of my closest friends and family to come join for a night out at the Melting Pot in Downtown Portland.

It was so much fun!
I was shocked!!!
I am still overwhelmed by all he did for me. I am so blessed to have such an amazing husband!

So once we got in the limo he had assigned certain tasks to different people.
There were picture takers, present opening gals, sharing time leader & prayer coordinator.
WOW!
Then to top it off he ordered this amazing picture frame and drove all over town (Sandy...Milwaukie...Oregon City... Gresham) to get them all to sign it before they got to my house. Then he had them prepare scripture and something special to share with me at dinner!

I totally do not deserve the things these women blessed me with. It was so humbling and I am so thankful for the blessing that everyone of them is in my life.
Thank you for all your support over the years and all the prayers you have prayed on my behave!
Thank you for your fellowship and encouragement.
You are all so unique and bless my life in such different ways.


The most amazing thing was that all my faithful friends were able to adjust their schedules and convince their hubbies to watch all their kids for the night... in such late notice. Thanks guys! I know what a commitment that is to have your spouse gone for the night. I don't feel worthy, but I sure enjoyed having them with me.


To Isaac, My Love

I love you and want to thank you for sacrificing your busiest day at work for me and my birthday. I pray the Lord blessed you today at your meeting so far away for putting our marriage and my birthday before work.
You are so good at spinning all your "plates."
It is something I am still trying to learn from you!
You went above and beyond Sir!

Thank you!

Thank you to you all who signed my frame in love!
It will be a constant reminder for me of how many special people God has blessed my life with!

I Love You All!



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Congrats to Steve & Julieanne!



Saturday Steve Folin & Julieanne Byeman
tied the knot!

It was a beautiful ceremony centered on Christ!
It has been a pleasure to get to know these two talented
and motivated people.

May the Lord bless your marriage and keep your hearts faithful to one another and Himself.
May you always keep choosing to hold one another dear as you seek God's heart for your life together.
In the hard and the good times, may you glorify Jesus through your reactions and responses to all life brings your way.

It was an honor to participate with you on your special day!


Congratulations!!!

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Monday, August 17, 2009

The Blessing of Bounty





The Lord is blessing all our hard work last April and May when we started our seeds indoors! The kids are having such a great time outside this summer reaping our harvest. This is the first year we have planted early enough that we have been reaping for months now. This is the height of our season though. Now through September.

The only problem is the WEEDS!
And Boy Do WE Have Some!

When we came home from our vacation WOW we had some HUGE Zucchini, hundreds of tomatoes and Lots of weeds.

And considering the condition of my back we will just have to live with the weeds and pray God blesses us with continued bounty.

Talk about needing to "pick your battles"; check out this field of weeds. Some garden!
Oh the symbolism in all of this. How you can work so hard to plant the seeds... but if the are thrown in with the "thistles" they will not reap a harvest.
How many times have I experienced that in life?
Right now I am currently thinking about the new school year ahead and in the past I focused so much on academics... mostly out of paranoia that my children would not meet standards.
The reality is that it was immaturity on my part.
As well as inexperience.
When it comes to homeschooling...
Yes I educate our children, but I want to put my energies into the studies that will reap a harvest not just for a short season and be totally forgotten, but for a lifetime.

I shouldn't get distracted with doing 10 different workbooks that consume a bunch time... instead study scripture and books that deepen our faith in addition to classics and history, then incorporate handwriting, grammar, and spelling and so on into report type writings or journaling.
Kelsey is a bookworm and I am very proud of her. I have to admit though that for her reading has become like an idol and it is largely my fault. I have praised her and put such a high value on literature that it has become a stumbling block. She is a sweet girl and I am very proud of her; however, there is pride in this area. It is my fault.
There have been times when attitudes change in her... she is more selfish and such and it is a reflection of what she is reading. Not that what she is reading is bad. It is generally very amazing text... but it is man's words, not GOd's Word!
When we hold her accountable and put out the standard that she needs to read more of God's Word than man's words she is restored... in faith, in action and deeds, and in love and serving.
So this year this is our focus and goal...
to revive a love for servant-hood in all of our children.
Kelsey is currently restored and now is the time to work down the line.

School will look very different for the Tolpins this year.
I will share more when I have more clarity.
It is exciting and I am just inspired right now.
Thank the Lord for reviving my heart for planting seeds on good soil and to focus on "weeding" in my own home.

I hope you are reaping a good harvest right now!
Blessings!

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Friday, August 14, 2009

August Birthdays at the Tolpins

The month of August is a busy one...


Its Kelsey's Birthday
(on the 3rd)She made a no dairy chocolate cake with peppermint frosting for our family birthday party last night! It was so yummy!

Drew's birthday is the 24th of August!

Here he is almost 3 years old with Big Brother Austin, Nana and Gigi (Great grandma)!


On the 17th I turn 30!

Here are a few pictures of our together family party we had last night!

My brother Tim fished & crabbed all day at the Coast for my birthday presents... a beautiful Freshwater Coho Salmon and 3 Dungeness Crabs!
I am so blessed to have such a skilled fisherman in the family!

(Actually we have 2... grandpa Walter... be safe up in Alaska)
Nana & Luke playing!

Here is a picture of Aunt Katie, Austin and Gigi (visiting from Arizona)!

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Tuesday, August 4, 2009

The Best Vacation we've ever had!


We Just got back from our best vacation ever!
Eleven days, just us the kids and NO DISTRACTIONS!
Many of our friends have had similar adventures and they rave about what a gift simplicity is when you can only take the "necessities" with you.
Now I can understand fully! It was great to just cuddle kids as we travel because there are no weeds to pull, no dishes to do, and the cleaning is so minimal since it is in perspective. (No comparison in sq footage)
What a BLESSING this has been for our family!



We just got home from our first RV vacation on Sunday night.
What a great time! We spent 11 days and surprised the kids all the way!
It was such a blast!


Here are a few of the highlights from our trip-

Time alone with Kids
No Distractions
Spontaneity
The time to work on family relationships

Driving on the open road just talking with Isaac while kids slept
Worshiping to our favorite worship music
Reading through Romans and discussing it
Together without Distractions
Simplicity
Together without Distractions
No Household- Garden-Farm responsibilities
Oh yeah, Disneyland, California Adventure, and SeaWorld were a blast, but the best part of the trip was time together without distractions.
Just playing together in the pools, camping, and eating over the campfire!

Here are some photos of our trip:


For more discritptions of our highlights push the READ MORE tab!

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