34 Good Years - Happy Anniversary Sweetheart

It was about a month after we met that you shocked me (Nov. 7, 1980) with a marriage proposal. I made you wait seven l-o-n-g months so I could get to know you and feel like I was marrying a good friend and for just the right day when we’d be off from teaching for the summer. It was 106º that day, but we were filled with gratitude to the Lord that He had preserved us, for bringing us together and for the support of family and friends who came wishing us well. 

In these 34 years, God has brought us seven children and is in the process of giving us a dozen grandchildren (some here, others anticipated) not to mention what God may do in years to come. 

The Lord showed us that we could trust Him to provide for the children He sent and the work he gives us to do. 

Through many dangers toils and snares, we have already come. He has led us safe thus far and He will lead us Home.

Are We Supposed to 'Take Back" Government?

Have you seen Chalcedon's post? 

http://chalcedon.edu/research/articles/are-we-supposed-to-take-over-or-take-back-government/

Christian Marriage is Married to the State

Isn’t the reason that Christians accept the state-licensing of marriages because of the fallout of divorce? Don’t Christians believe they need the state to guarantee things like alimony and child support? Isn’t it the benefits provided by the state that is part of the driving motive of the legalization of gay marriages? Gays “want in” the state licensing of marriage, but why are Christians not wanting out? What business is it of the state to rule over God’s primary covenantal institution—the family?

If it’s a question of alimony and child support, the Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 6:7, “Now therefore there is utterly a fault among you, because ye go to law with one another. Why do ye not rather take wrong? Why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded?” The greater sin, he said, was going to the wicked for judgment.

Chocolate-Fig Pudding

 Chocolate-Fig Pudding

Oh, bring us some figgy pudding!

In your DRY Vita-Mix container

Grind: 1 c almonds + 10 apricot seeds - Break open the apricot pit with a nut cracker. The seed will look like an almond.

In your WET Vita-Mix container blend well:

10 figs 

⅓ c. cocoa

⅓ c. carob

2 T vanilla

add powdered almonds & apricot pits

opt. add 2 T coconut oil or 2 T Concentrated Coconut Cream.

Fill blender with soy milk OR water and two droppers of Stevia sweetener

Blend and pour into 8 cups.

.

Chill & enjoy.

Here are an evaluation of the health qualities of figs:

http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=24

Raw Almonds Available @ $7 per lb.

Almonds are a great source of vitamin E. 25g provides 70% of the recommended daily allowance. They also have good amounts of magnesium, potassium, zinc, iron, fibre and healthy monounsaturated fat. They contain more calcium than any other nut. Health Benefits of Almonds: High Protein, Heart-Friendly and a Good Diet Aid. 

All Boxes are USPS 2-3 day Priority - 

Regional Rate is usually the lowest shipping cost. 

Regional Rate Box A  

Holds 8 lbs almonds x $7 = $56 + shipping

$5.44 Most of Ca.

$5,84 to Idaho 

$7.55 to Oregon, 

$7.55 to Colorado

$7.55 to Montana 

$8.26 to Kansas, 

$8.98 to Missouri

Standard: 10-1/8" x 7-1/8" x 5" 

Medium Flat Rate Box is $11.30

12 lb almonds x $7= $84 + $11.30 shipping - Total $95.30    

 11" x 8-1/2" x 5-1/2

Regional Rate Box B holds 14 lbs. almonds x $7 = $98.00 + shipping

$7.25 for most of Ca.   

$8.10 to Oregon, 

$10.66 to New Mexico, 

$14.42 to Missouri

12-1/4" x 10-1/2" x 5-1/2" 

Large Flat Rate Box is $15.80 

18 lbs. almonds  x $7 = $126 + $15.80 shipping = $141.80

12 1/4" x 12 1/4" x 6" 

Please E-mail your address to dneseppi@startmail.com

We usually ship within 24 hours.

We will e-mail our address for you to send a check.

Elisabeth Elliott Gren

Elisabeth Elliot (née Howard; born December 21, 1926) died June 15, 2015 at the age of 88.

I once wrote to Elisabeth Elliot. Her handwritten response was this: 

"For the Seppis, 

with gratitude for your 

encouraging words. 

Elisabeth Elliot Grim”

and imprinted on the reverse side was her prayer: 

Loving Lord & Heavenly Father I offer up today all that I am, all that I have, all that I do, and all that I suffer, to be Yours today and Yours forever. Give me grace, Lord to do all that I know of Your holy will. Purify my heart, sanctify my thinking, correct my desires. Teach me, in all of today's work and trouble and joy, to respond with honest praise, simple trust, and instant obedience, that my life may be in truth a living sacrifice, by the power of Your Holy Spirit and in the name of Your Son Jesus Christ, my Master and my all. Amen. 

Elisabeth Elliott Gren

Here’s a conglomeration of what I’ve found on the internet about Elisabeth Elliott today:
http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/peaches-in-paradise

“We are women, and my plea is Let me be a woman, holy through and through, asking for nothing but what God wants to give me, receiving with both hands and with all my heart whatever that is.”   

Christian higher education, trotting happily along in the train of feminist crusaders, is willing and eager to treat the subject of feminism, but gags on the word femininity. Maybe it regards the subject as trivial or unworthy of academic inquiry. Maybe the real reason is that its basic premise is feminism. Therefore it simply cannot cope with femininity.

Elisabeth Elliot is a Christian author and speaker. Her first husband, Jim Elliot, was killed in 1956 while attempting to make missionary contact with the Auca (now known as Huaorani) of eastern Ecuador. She later spent two years as a missionary to the tribe members who killed her husband. Returning to the United States after many years in South America, she became widely known as the author of over twenty books and as a speaker in constant demand. Elliot toured the country, sharing her knowledge and experience, well into her seventies.

“God never withholds from His child that which His love and wisdom call good. God's refusals are always merciful ― 'severe mercies' at times but mercies all the same. God never denies us our hearts desire except to give us something better.” ―Elisabeth Elliot

Submit radically to God, and do what is right no matter what. Put your love life on the altar and keep it there until God takes it off. Suffering is normal. Have you no scars, no wounds, with Jesus on the Calvary road?

“Pursue obedience with all your might.” ~EE

 Elisabeth made famous an anonymous poem that seems to describe her own life of perseverance, as two of her three husbands preceded her in death:

At an old English parsonage down by the sea,
there came in the twilight a message to me.
Its quaint Saxon legend deeply engraven that,
as it seems to me, teaching from heaven.

And all through the hours the quiet words ring,
like a low inspiration, ‘Do the next thing.’
Many a questioning, many a fear,
many a doubt hath its quieting here.

Moment by moment, let down from heaven,
time, opportunity, guidance are given.
Fear not tomorrow, child of the King,
trust that with Jesus, do the next thing.

Do it immediately, do it with prayer,
do it reliantly, casting all care.
Do it with reverence, tracing His hand,
who placed it before thee with earnest command.

Stayed on omnipotence, safe ‘neath His wing,
leave all resultings, do the next thing.
Looking to Jesus, ever serener,
working or suffering be thy demeanor,
in His dear presence, the rest of His calm,
the light of His countenance, be thy psalm.
Do the next thing.

Here is her brief testimony, told in her typically understated way:
My parents were missionaries in Belgium where I was born. When I was a few months old, we came to the U.S. and lived in Germantown, not far from Philadelphia, where my father became an editor of the Sunday School Times. . . .

Our family continued to live in Philadelphia and then in New Jersey until I left home to attend Wheaton College. By that time, the family had increased to four brothers and one sister. My studies in classical Greek would one day enable me to work in the area of unwritten languages to develop a form of writing.

A year after I went to Ecuador, Jim Elliot, whom I had met at Wheaton, also entered tribal areas with the Quichua Indians. In nineteen fifty three we were married in the city of Quito and continued our work together. Jim had always hoped to have the opportunity to enter the territory of an unreached tribe. The Aucas were in that category—a fierce group whom no one had succeeded in meeting without being killed. After the discovery of their whereabouts, Jim and four other missionaries entered Auca territory. After a friendly contact with three of the tribe, they were speared to death.

Our daughter Valerie was 10 months old when Jim was killed. I continued working with the Quichua Indians when, through a remarkable providence, I met two Auca women who lived with me for one year. They were the key to my going in to live with the tribe that had killed the five missionaries. I remained there for two years.

After having worked for two years with the Aucas, I returned to the Quichua work and remained there until 1963 when Valerie and I returned to the U.S.

Since then, my life has been one of writing and speaking. It also included, in 1969, a marriage to Addison Leitch, professor of theology at Gordon Conwell Seminary in Massachusetts. He died in 1973. After his death I had two lodgers in my home. One of them married my daughter, the other one, Lars Gren, married me. Since then we have worked together.

She embraced the secret to practical Christianity, the very thing we today are most disinclined to: “Truly, truly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (John 12:24).  Oh, may we not lose our way but follow this woman into the death that cannot die! ~Ray Ortland

"“The routines of housework and of mothering may be seen as a kind of death, and it is appropriate that they should be, for they offer the chance, day after day, to lay down one’s life for others. Then they are no longer routines. By being done with love and offered up to God with praise, they are thereby hallowed as the vessels of the tabernacle were hallowed–not because they were different from other vessels in quality or function, but because they were offered to God. A mother’s part in sustaining the life of her children and making it pleasant and comfortable is no triviality. It calls for self-sacrifice and humility, but it is the route, as was the humiliation of Jesus, to glory.” -EE

http://www.generationcedar.com/main/2015/06/portrait-of-a-courageous-woman-of-god-elisabeth-elliot.html?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=socialnetwork

In Memory of the recent Passing of Samuel Blumenfeld

David & I (Esther) were public school teachers debating over joining the Teacher's union. We read his book: NEA: Trojan Horse in American Education and that settled the conflict. Then we got to hear Samuel L Blumenfeld​ speak. He was dynamic.

Samuel L. Blumenfeld passed from this life today, June 1, 2015. He wrote the book all of my siblings and I learned to read from. My dad also wore out many copies of Alpha-Phonics teaching his fifth and sixth graders who were behind or "dyslexic." I remember going with him to tutor a young man on "the other side of the tracks." The student's mother showed us a bullet hole through their curtain. She had just had the front window replaced. The mother was thrilled with her son's progress in reading, praising my dad. Dad always gave phonics the credit.

Both were public school teachers, they wanted to study education for their own children. A few months later they heard an ad on Christian radio that Blumenfeld was speaking nearby. He was an exuberant speaker who had recently come to faith in Christ through his study of American education and realized the role of Christianity promoting literacy. Blumenfeld had a passion for literacy having tried to teach his mother to read. A Jewish immigrant and intelligent woman, she was never able to "get it" and went to her grave never learning to read English. After her death, Blumenfeld realized that while he tried to teach her the "look say" memorizing whole word method of reading, English should be taught phonetically; memorizing the sounds of letters and letter groups. His other books showed how education had been deliberately dumbed down to create a class of Americans who follow and don't have the confidence or understanding to lead. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfIN9J7Y9us

Mr. Blumenfeld wrote and published nearly to the end of his life, publishing his last book last year. ~Regina

Available from Amazon.com

Samuel Blumenfeld has blessed us greatly through his teaching and books, especially NEA: Trojan Horse in American Education, Is Public Education Necessary?, Alpha Phonics, How to Tutor and many others. David & I (Esther) first heard him speak when out firstborn, Regina, was crawling. We love this man and pray many will read his books. These are full of history giving wisdom to us all. 

NEA: Trojan Horse

http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?an=Samuel+L+Blumenfeld&sts=t&tn=NEA%3A+Trojan+Horse+in+American+Education

Alpha-Phonics:

http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=13701768195&searchurl=sts%3Dt%26tn%3DAlpha+Phonics%26an%3DBlumenfeld

Is Public Education Necessary?

http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?kn=Is+Public+Education+Necessary%3F&sts=t&x=0&y=0