Rebecca

This is an Orange-banded Pine Moth, apparently it's in the Tiger Moth part of the the moth family. Photo taken by Alan: Here is a photo of a Tiger Moth I took a few years ago:

I like the spirit of the people, they are eager to learn the Bible and are not afraid to invite family and friends to church or to talk with them about the gospel. Biblical truths are preached every service, both in the main auditorium to adults and in the Sunday school with very young children. The people have humble hearts and love helping the church and others, they are a joy to be around.

Yes, but not in the area of being sent out of my local church. As I went out on deputation and later furlough, the vast majority of pastors I talked with were very pleased with my decision to go through my local church and not a board. I primarily visited churches located in the midwest and Michigan, so I'm not sure what pastors elsewhere in the country would say about it. As far as my church being able to send me finances as we have it set up, it has not been an issue once we figured out how to transfer the funds. Although I don't know the legal differences -if any- between Alberta and Ontario concerning missionary visas, I know a missionary family in Toronto, Canada you might want to get in touch with, they may be able to speak to you about how to come to Canada as a missionary or any other questions you may have concerning boards (I believe they went out of BIMI). I hope it helps. Cory and April McTague email: (messaged)

Yesterday I had taken a walk around some tide pools and by chance happened to startle a puffer fish, which I only noticed because it had puffed up due to my startling it. I managed to get a photo of it before I moved and it apparently thought it was no longer 'trapped' and so deflated and swam away. I wasn't able to get a photo of it deflated. It amazes me that it has such an unusual defense mechanism. I have seen them un-inflated in aquariums before but this was the first time I've seen one puffed up and in its natural habitat. I believe this one is a White-spotted puffer.

I'm a missionary sent out of my local church. My home church receives and handles all my support and transfer funds to me as needed (bi-monthly set amount or as I request additional funds). My church set up a bank account with my name on it, but the finance team has access to it so they can transfer the funds as needed. Other than that they don't touch the money in that account. The church handles my income tax forms and helped with the legal paperwork that I needed to get my missionary visa, and as it was a learning experience for both the church and myself, there were some hiccups along the way as we learned what each of our legal responsibilities were. Whether a missionary chooses to go through a board, clearinghouse, or local church, they should put a lot of prayer into that decision and allow God to direct their steps.

Well, the rocks have finished tumbling in the final grit of sand, which should have polished them to a nice shiny finish. I rinsed off the gray sludgy sand, let them dry, and this is the end result: You may be thinking to yourself "they don't look shiny, do mine eyes deceive me?" The answer is, no, your eyes do not deceive you. The rocks did not shine up. If you'll notice, a few of them don't even have a bit of rough patches smoothed out. I asked myself "what happened?" And so I did a bit of research and discovered the answer. https://rocktumbler.com/blog/phooey-my-stones-didnt-get-a-nice-polish/ Problem 1: I had used rocks of varying hardness. Some were too soft and the harder rocks wore them down quickly. Problem 2: As a result of problem 1, the worn bits of soft rock changed the sand grit, it was no longer uniform, causing more wear to the soft rocks, and causing each week of tumbling to not change the rocks as it should have. Problem 3: Again related to problem 1, as a result of the rocks getting smaller, there was too much space in the tumbler, so the rocks were hitting each other instead of rubbing, causing again the problem of uneven wear. This rock tumbling site suggest using filler, such as ceramic or plastic pellets (https://rocktumbler.com/media.shtml) to help fill the spaces between rocks. Although I was a bit disappointed with my rookie mistakes, I learned a lot, and I know what to improve on for next time. I do need to learn how to check for rock hardness and determine which ones are the same or very similar hardness before even putting them in the tumbler, so that will help a lot with overcoming the main issue. This experience also gave me food for thought. There were several Biblical applications that can be applied here, but I had this thought first. Because I just thought of this, it's not really a proper lesson, just a rough draft that I'll polish up later. (puns!) I just wanted to share this thought here first. Who is shaping you, the world or the Lord? We are all shaped by our experiences as we go through life. But who is shaping us and why? The world As I tumbled the rocks, I had noticed one wearing down and removed them from the tumbling process. It was broken in three pieces, but could still be used and beautiful to look at. But I missed a few and they tumbled until there was nothing left, just grains. Some are tiny fractions of what they used to be. I can still use them, but they will never be as glamorous or amazing as I had hoped. When the world shapes us, it is for their own benefit, to take as much from you as possible. The world will take you, wear you down until there's nothing left, and spit you out when you have nothing left to give. The end result is you are but a shell, a fragment of your former self. Some people never recover from this process and give up on life completely. Some may turn to God who takes what's left and can use them for His honor and glory. The world's motive for using your life is selfishness, to use you up and destroy your life for their own gain. The Lord What is the Lord's motive for shaping us? God's motive for using our life is to give honor and glory to Him. God does want to use us, but not in the same way the world does. He doesn't want to use us up and throw us away when He's done. No, God wants us to endure the shaping process, to come out the other side purified, clean, and honorable. The shaping process is difficult, but God knows how to do it in such a way that we are not destroyed in the process, but purified. We cannot see what the end result will be, but God can. We need to trust God, put our lives in His hands. II Timothy 2:3 "Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ." II Timothy 2:20-21 "But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honour, and some to dishonour. If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work." Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end." Titus 2:14 "Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." Hebrews 11-12 Psalm 51 The Bible is full of so many verses and entire chapters detailing how God wants to use us, but we have to go through a shaping process to get where God can use us the best, to bring Him honor and glory. But so many believe the shaping process is too difficult, too painful, and they give up. Don't give up on God's process. Trust Him to know that He only wants good things for you, just endure. Psalm 51:10 "Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me."

The penguin is saying "hello". Yes I can speak penguin!

A curious crab!

Welcome!

Welcome to Online Baptist!

I finished tumbling the rocks for week three, and wow have they shrunk! It's amazing what just the movement of sand and water can do to a rock. I'll just post a few of my favorite so far.

Happy New Year!

Here are some closeups of the individual rocks, these are my favorite ones so far. I need to practice taking better photos of small things. The lighting is off, but they didn't turn out too bad for a cell phone. These are all after 2 weeks of tumbling, I can't wait to see the difference from these to the final product! The last photo with the two rocks are the Sodalite gemstones, I like the blue color of them, hopefully next time I'll have better lighting and the color will show up better.

I thought of an auction, but in the spirit of Christmas, I'd be willing to part with it for a low low sum of NT$1,500 just for you! (~US$50 for everyone else)

There were some gemstones I forgot to add in the first post. They came with the tumbler, so I let the kids choose two, so the pictures will have the gemstones lined up next to kids names, next time I'll take photos of them without the names. The names of the gemstones are (in order top to bottom): Sodalite, Aventurine, Sodalite, Agate, Tiger's Eye, Rose Quartz, Aventurine, Hematite, Aventurine, Hematite Before tumbling: After 1 week: After 2 weeks: