Pallin is not Teddy Roosevelt

To all of you who are sending or have received the email “Who Am I?” that goes as follows:
I'm under 45 years old,
I love the outdoors,
I hunt,
I am a Republican reformer,
I have taken on the Republican Party establishment,
I have many children,
I have a spot on the national ticket as vice president with less than two years in the governor's office.

Who am I?"
If you said Teddy Roosevelt you are right !Teddy Roosevelt in 1900.

Here are my comments to this email:

Teddy Roosevelt is a personal hero of mine. I have read his writings and several books about his life. Governor Pallin maybe a lovely human being and wonderful Governor of Alaska, but she is in not even in Teddy Roosevelt’s league. Let’s keep things in perceptive:
Before he was vice President:
He struggled as a sickly asthmatic child and overcame it
He was proficient in French, German, Latin and Greek
He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard
He was a New York Assemblyman served 3 terms
President of the Board of New York City Police Commissioners
Assistant Secretary of the Navy
Instrumental in the Spanish-American War
Won the Medal of Honor
Colonel of the Rough Riders
Wrote the History of the Naval War of 1812 set the standard for studies on naval strategy and was required reading at the Naval Academy in Annapolis for many years.
Established two cattle ranches in Dakota Territory
Lost both his beloved mother and wife on the same day
Published the Life of Thomas Hart Benton
Published Life of Governor Morris
Published Ranch Life and Hunting Trail
Published Essays in Practical Politics
Four volume history of the frontier The Winning of the West published
U.S. Civil Service Commissioner, Washington
Published History of New York
Published The wilderness Hunter
Published Hero Tales from American History in collaboration with Henry Cabot Lodge
Published American Ideals
Published The Rough Riders
All before becoming vice president in March 1901.

Genealogy Websites

Here are the list of sites I've discovered and found to be helpful. There is a LOT of stuff online now. This is just my suggestions.

Here you go:
http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/default.asp The LDS site. The best!
http://dir.genealogytoday.com/index.html Free general site good.
http://www.olivetreegenealogy.com/ships/ Olivetree is good for other things beside ship lists, but that’s the link I saved
http://www.cyndislist.com/census.htm I’m sure you already know about Cyndi’s List. Tons of information. The site for lists of other sites.
http://www.immigrantships.net/ Great source for passenger lists
http://www.idreamof.com/newdata.html okay, but not the best site
http://www.us-census.org/inventory/ Need to know what specific state and county you are looking for to really use this one.

One tip too is to put information in the search site www.Dogpile.com. You can write in things like “Samuel Locker 1736 Virginia” and you will get information that way too. You will need to do a lot more stiffing though. Best of luck.
I traced a friends mother’s side of the family back to England as far as 1302 by just using the FamilySearch.org site. What was even more amazing it that it only took about three minutes. That isn’t normal. Like I said in the other blog, I’ve been working on Locker for years and still haven’t gotten them off the East coast to England.

I'm thinking about putting together easy search steps to follow. Maybe in the near future.

Where Are You From?

When I lived in Southern California I had the opportunity to have a young teacher as a roommate. She decided that during her summer break from teaching she wanted to travel to the homeland of her parents. She was just about as Irish as one can be. Her name is Kelly Ann Hoolihan, a name which kind of rolls off your tongue with an Irish accent without even trying. Before she left she wanted to do a wee bit of research to discover what part of Ireland her family was from. I thought it might be a hoot to look into my family roots, too, so she and I visited the Mormon Temple in Los Angeles to utilize their Family History Library.

It took her about ten minutes to figure out where her family had originated. Well, maybe a little longer than that, but very quickly. I found myself traveling back again and again, spending many long hours in the dark microfiche room, scrolling through page after page of old United States census records. While I did discover some information, it was only satisfying in spits and spurts.

After I moved back to Northern California, it wasn’t until a friend here became interested in tracing her genealogy that I again pulled out my binders (yes, binders) and started searching again. My friend Pam and I took a trip over the Northern California Mormon Temple in Oakland to their Family History Library and, of course, Pam had great luck and even found photos, stories, and more. I even found one more link in the chain of my family history.

In 2000 I stumbled onto Ancesty.com and thought I had hit the Mother load. I didn’t need to travel to a Family History Library; I could spend endless hours online searching. I’m happy to report I did locate my mother’s father’s connection to their homeland. Not too hard to figure out they are from Ireland. Next I discovered my 3 times great grandfather was from Antrim, Ireland, just north of Belfast. The photo at the top is from there. But then the path grew cold; it had been just a wee moment of glee.


Fast forward eight years and I happened on a new genealogy website and was overwhelmed at what can be found online now; photos of gravestones, ship passenger records, history of little known people, maps, and tons more. This time I knew I would reach my goal of tracing all my grandparents back to their homeland. After two weeks of intensive searching I have located my mother’s mom's family back to about 1208 in Tideswell, Derbyshire, England. The last name was changed in about 1635.

On my father’s mother’s side, I was able to trace the family back to 1674 to Saint Ninians, Stirling, Scotland. You remember the movie Brave Heart about William Wallace? He lived a few miles from Saint Ninians, Stirling. This is a photo of the Wallace Monument in his honor.



My father’s father was the hardest of all. I just can’t get the family out of the colonies. The line is stuck in Mississippi in 1849. I’m still searching, but that is for another time.

If you are interested in starting your own search, I have a list of great websites I’ve found extremely helpful. (Becasue of the overwhelming amount of interest I have posted the websites on this blog for all to enjoy and benefit from.)

I guess in a way if you’re a Christian you already have the source book to know exactly where you are from. We just need to return to a very familiar verse in John 6:9, Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Yes, our heritage is much greater than Ireland, South American, Africa, New Zealand, etc. Our homeland is heaven and our Father lives there.

Let me end with a passage from Galatians 4:4-7 that explains our ultimate heritage much better than I ever could. But when the time arrived that was set by God the Father, God sent his Son, born among us of a woman, born under the conditions of the law so that he might redeem those of us who have been kidnapped by the law. Thus we have been set free to experience our rightful heritage. You can tell for sure that you are now fully adopted as his own children because God sent the Spirit of his Son into our lives crying out, "Papa! Father!" Doesn't that privilege of intimate conversation with God make it plain that you are not a slave, but a child? And if you are a child, you're also an heir, with complete access to the inheritance.

Road to Hope

Jeremiah 29:11-13 (NIV) is a very familiar passage to most Christians: For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

Linking the words I know to our future seems like an oxymoron until you consider who is saying, they “know.” Our Lord God states unequivocally that He alone knows. Not only does He know, but He has plans. Not for just an ordinary what-to-do-today agenda, but He has a long-term goal to flourish, thrive, prosper and grow you, And on top of all that, you get hope. Hope. I could go a long time on just hope alone.

It seems sometimes that we vacillate between conceit and despair, thinking we know it all, only to ultimately realize we don’t know anything. Then God comes into our lives. When we met God for the first time He was already completely aware of everything that was, is, and will be relating to us, past, present and future. He is the Source, and in His hands He holds the plans He has for us. We may only see the circumstances swirling around us and with that view, there are times when despair sets in; but God sees the whole picture.

Knowing our future as He does, His desire is for us to come to Him and talk about the unique plan He has for our life. The word used in the verse is “seek.” Seek means to search, set out for, and request. Is He hiding? No, the point is that while He is always available to us, our charge is to be aware of our need, to set out and seek for Him, to turn to Him, and to turn nowhere and to no one else. God wants us to seek after Him and as we find Him, He has given us a clear and explicit promise that He will be found. Run to Him and discover all the great plans He already has for you!

Road to Tibet

I have been fascinated with Tibet since the late 80’s.


With Tibet in the news these days I have been reminded of the first time I heard about it. When I lived in Southern California I met a man who had lived in Lhasa, Tibet for four years, teaching English in a Chinese factory as a mission assignment. He has stopping off at his mission organization's headquarters in Southern California on his way home to Georgia.


His name was Saint Paul. That is his given name. I asked to see his driver’s license to be sure. He was a black man with a Southern accent from the state of Georgia in the United States, and he stood out in the country of Tibet. I had the opportunity to spend several days with him and heard of an incredible, nearly treeless land, of high mountains, cold winds, and lost people. This was the first time I had ever heard about Tibet. He told how, at that time, there was only one stop light in the entire country, which wasn’t a problem because in Lhasa most people rode bicycles.


Saint Paul also had heard first-hand reports of what had happened in the 50’s. Thousands of men, women and children were massacred in the streets and many more imprisoned, deported, and left the country in fear for their lives. Monks and nuns were a prime target. Monasteries and temples were shelled and destroyed.


One day we met for lunch and Saint Paul brought photos with him of Tibet. I couldn’t believe what I was looking at. It was like nothing I had ever seen. One photo stood out more than any of the others. It was a group of seven people huddled sitting on the floor of a small room around a low table, all dressed in heavy clothing because of the cold. When I asked Saint Paul what this was a shot of, he told me it was a photo of all the known Christians in the entire country of Tibet. I was speechless, and to this day that photo is burned into my memory. It showed seven people counting Saint Paul, two of whom were from other countries; only four were Tibetans. Four!


The photo of this group of four has come to my mind so many times over the years. I often wonder what happened to those brothers and sisters in Christ.


In light of the current focus on Tibet, I encourage you to consider the following:
• Learn for yourself what happened in the 50’s and what has taken place in Tibet since that time. The internet is a marvelous tool. Form your own opinion.
• Pray for the Christians that are living in Tibet now.
• Pray also for the safety of all Tibetans in Tibet and around the word.

A Call For Stories

A call for stories about local women or girls in foreign countries

I have been given the go ahead to write a devotional with an international flair for women 20-35 years of age entitled, “Passport Into Today.” Each day will feature a story about a local woman or girl living in a foreign country. There will also be country facts included with each day and a scripture to encourage and bless the reader.

Would you be interested in submitting a story? Your story needs to be 250-350 words in length. This page has 249 words. So the stories do not need to be long or take a lot of time to put together. In fact do you have a story you have used in a newsletter already that you could pass along? Is there a story about a local woman on your website or in print somewhere you can send? You would receive the credit for the story and your organization's web site can be listed. I also want to list the mission organizations in the back of the book with contact information. My hope is to promote a missions worldview with this book. For restricted access countries it is understood that names and perhaps locations will need to be changed.

If you are interested, please contact me at: blessingmeadow@sbcglobal.net and send your submission as a Word document. Also, if you know of someone you think might be interested in participating, please send this email on to them. Thank you.

Forest Dance

Mount Hermon writing assignment:

The arms of the trees reach out to effortlessly draw me to dance, while the constant reverbration of a waterfall hums the background music. But my way is impeded by the dead leaves, the broken branches.

I’m reminded how decay is all around us and in us. The beauty of today’s forest is built on the decay of fallen friends -- some cut down by circumstances too early in their prime, and others lying down after years of faithful endurance.

We only have this moment to perform our dance and we need to avoid stumbling or being hindered by our broken parts. Our beauty, like this forest, is made up of all its parts dancing together.

Path to Love

“You can’t play with us!” Sally* stated emphatically and included a very angry look. Sally is a four-year-old barking at another four-year-old girl on the playground at preschool. This interchange had been brewing all morning. Sally wanted to be the new girl’s only friend and had been verbally working the group to make sure they understood her position. Sally’s angry outburst had caught the attention of her teacher and discussions ensued in which the teacher was now doing the talking and Sally was listening.

Why did I start a February Valentine message with this story? Well, the verse the children are learning for the month of February is, “Love one another.” (John 13:34 ) and each week the Bible stories, songs, and workbooks have focused on ways to share love with others in word and deed. The scene seemed strange positioned alongside what the children, including Sally, had been learning.

As I witnessed the morning’s drama I was amazed at how easy it is, not only for Sally but for all of us, to fall into one of the roles in this kind of act. My thoughts went to the other players in the scene. Maybe the following passages might clear up what came to my mind.
Matthew 5:43, 44, 46
You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.'But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?
And Luke 6:27, 32, 35
But I say to you who hear: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,
But if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. But love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. For He is kind to the unthankful and evil.

While Sally is an important character in this drama there are others; the new girl, Jordan*, the girl at which the finally verbal attack was addressed, Heather*, and the teacher. My attention was drawn to Heather, who took the main blast from Sally. What would be her reaction to being attacked for just wanting to play with Jordan and Sally? Heather first stopped in her tracks with a look of disbelief and then turned silently to walk away. But within minutes she was playing with someone else and when I caught up with her in another ten minutes or so she was happily playing with Sally and Jordan.

I’m not calling Sally evil, but in light of these passages she is the enemy, the one who curses and was spitefully. The Word is clear that Heather’s reaction was a favorable one in light of being attacked. For as Luke 6: 27 says, “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? . . . even sinners love those who love them.”

Here is my assignment for you on this Valentine’s Day: do you have a Sally in your life? God wants you to express love to them. Luke 6:35 says “do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. For He is kind to the unthankful and evil.”

Starting on this 2008 Valentine’s Day let’s strive to live out the second greatest commandment, “To love our neighbor as our self.” That means all our neighbors, even the ones that have been unkind to us. Did someone come to mind? That’s the one you need to love.

*Not their real name

Is Your Bag Empty?

I seldom saw Sara smile. She went about her job day-in and day-out without skipping a beat. Walking toward her, I never knew what she was thinking. She had perfected a cool, imperturbable manner that revealed nothing about her true feelings and made her hard to fathom. I decided that I was going to make it my daily goal to make her laugh out loud at work. You need to understand that up to this point I had never heard her laugh or even express the slightest amusement. It took many days before I was able to get my first out-loud laugh out of Sara. When she finally did, it made me laugh with joy and my laughter encouraged her to laugh louder. From that point on, although I wasn't able to get a response out of her every day, it began to happen more and more regularly.

To get Sara to laugh, I needed to get to know her and to be interested in what she liked and didn’t like. I found out that Sara had a crush on one of the men at our workplace, so I encouraged her to pursue her desires. As a result, Sara started to smile more and more. People began to interact with her because she wasn’t always looking down and frowning. Throughout this time, Sara herself initiated some changes. Unbeknownst to anyone, she joined Jenny Craig and slowly began to lose a bunch of weight. She had a make-over and started to wear make-up, got her hair cut into a new, attractive style, and with her new slimmer shape, she needed a new wardrobe. It would be great to be able to tell you that this all had a fairy-tale ending and that Sara and the focus of her crush ended up together, but such is not the case. The young man turned out to be very shallow and could only see himself with a tall, long legged blond. However, taking into consideration what he himself had to offer, perhaps there is some justice in the fact that this didn't happen for him and still hasn’t happened.

Now, not for a moment is the point of this story that because I encouraged her to laugh everyday her life changed. Sara needed to discover what was important to her, what she wanted for herself, and then to start moving toward whatever that was. It happened that God allowed me to be there at the time she was ready to make some changes and I was able to encourage her to understand that she has value, just because she is who she is. Sara needed to grab hold of that fact. Because she was willing to look at her life and make some changes, she found her joy inside.

You may need to think about this quote from Benjamin Franklin for a second, but the point is a good one: “It is hard for an empty bag to stand upright.” Is your bag empty because you haven’t taken the time to realize your joy?