Last Day of 2007
Greetings, One and All---Good bye to 2007 and Happy New Year 2008!

My friend Saundra called me Sunday and said I was a wee bit behind in updating this journal. She was absolutely correct! However, today I finally have a desk again with a computer on it thanks to a couple of great friends who purchased the new computer equipment. Another friend is the genius who understands all things electronic and the servant who gives his time to do all the other necessary steps to get everything up and running. Santa provided a podcast set-up that will grease the rails for" The View from Rose Hill" program that I plan to update more frequently that I have updated this journal entry! Hooboy...where does the time go?!

This last day of 2007 has been pretty: blue sky with scattered, white clouds; temperature in the 50's, although a bit windy. However, the weather guessers say that a cold front is approaching that will drop the mercury at Rose Hill to 30 degrees tonight and mid-teens tomorrow night.

When I heard the prediction, I immediately thought of the dahlias I haven't winterized yet, the dead stems needing to be cut to ground level and the whole area heavily mulched.

Today is busy with computer set-up, so New Year's Day will be the dahlias' turn, even though the wind will be 15-25 MPH, turning 30 degrees to "bundle-up 'til you can hardly move" weather.
Maybe there is something in your life that needs tending, something that has brought beauty and enjoyment in the past, but has fallen victim to the ever turning motion of this orb that sometimes makes us forget important people and things.

I invite you to join me on New Year's day--or on the day you read this--and let's put our hands in the dirt to take care of something very precious so the vicious elements will not freeze the sap and steal that which once was essential to the quality of our daily lives.

As I tried my hand at farming this summer, I learned that in the process of working the land, tending is just as important as planting and reaping. Actually, without the tending, there will be no harvest.

In this new year, let us determine to be better at tending what God has placed in our dirt, maybe more thoughtful and contemplative, asking God for His blessing on the fruit of our ground. How else can our garden grow?

Loved by a faithful Savior,
RoseAnne
posted: 12.31.2007 | 17:00:28
 

Going to Russia August 4-14, 2006
Hello from the hot, humid South! As of 8/2/06, the pole beans are climbing the bamboo support poles, the okra is growing tall and sturdy, the one Christmas bean bush is tall and blooming, the birds are enjoying the tomatoes, and the Crowder pea bushes are four-feet-tall and blooming!

Then there are zinnias, gardenias, sunflowers (planted by the birds near their feeders--I didn't plant a single seed!), dahlias, cone flowers, hydrangeas, bee balm, cannas, roses,
asters....all beautiful and needing water in our drought time.

I ask for your prayers as I fly to Moscow with a team from my church, Fellowship Bible, to be one of the women's teachers for a small Baptist church's couples' retreat in an old KGB camp in Karachaevsk, Russia. We fly there on Sunday. We have been told there are five Muslim couples attending, too.

Please pray for the translators, for the weather, for the Battle, for the hearts of the men and women, for God's kingdom to be served and His glory to be shown.

Please pray for Valerie, RACM's Ministry Coordinator, as her father's cancer has reoccurred in multiple places, and she must go to help her dad and mother. join with us as we ask our Father in Heaven for loving kindness and mercy to be shown to Mr. Evans in this time. Lift Valerie up, too.

I am unsure who can water at Rose Hill while V is gone, so pray for God to raise up someone to water the veggies and flowers, and to feed Tigger and Black Kitty, Rose Hill's cats. Miss Millie will be traveling to FL with V and Cooper, V's dog.

Only God can do His Work, but I so desire to be open, to be listening, to be courageous, to be loving and kind, to be filled with His Spirit.

My trip to Sudan changed my life last winter, and I know this trip to Russia will open up new areas of growth and deepening. I covet your prayers and remembrances on behalf of our team, the Russian men and women, Valerie, her father, and Rose Hill.

May the Lord's peace be ever so present today for you.

In the Love of the Lamb,
RoseAnne
posted: 08.02.2006
 

When the Beans Don
Hello, everyone who has been looking for a note from me!

I have been remiss in coming here, wondering what I would say to encourage or motivate...I realized I didn't need to do either, but I could tell you what God is showing me.

I was late planting the vegetable garden, and I have that because my friend Shirley set aside two days to help me, and that Sarah and Shaun Massey, twin 9th graders, came to assist.

It's funny how I can lose my way and become discouraged when my schedule is interrupted or derailed. However, God is always faithful to send someone to come alongside me, to remind me of His faithfulness, to put the hoe back in my hand and to work beside me; then I remember what is true about God and what is true about this world: God will accomplish through me what He has promised, and the world will what it can to destroy my soul.

After planting, I was so excited every morning to check for signs of growth. I watered and watched. Things grew for sure....WEEDS...but no beans. After three weeks, I dug into the holes to discover: no beans seeds! Something had eaten them all.

How despondent I was! I looked at the good-sized garden, realizing that all our hard work and sweat had yielded no fruit. After I faced the truth, I had a decision to make: whether to plant again or to sow a green manure crop such as Crowder peas or a grass to plow under the soil in the fall, allowing the soil to be enriched but bringing forth nothing to be picked and eaten.

One late-June morning I sat in the dust among the rows and prayed, "Lord, what do You want me to do?" I sat for a long time. I remembered a teaching from Dr. Gene Scott from California about Habakkuk 3:17-18:

"Though the fig tree should not blossom, And
there be no fruit [lit. produce] on the vines,
Though the yield of the olive should fail, And
the fields produce no food . . .Yet I will
exult in the Lord [lit. turn around in circles
with dancing], and I will rejoice in the God
of my salvation."

As I sat there in the heat and dust, I wondered what would my exultation be, how I could rejoice in the God of my salvation, whether my beans had grown or not.

After an hour, I stood with a new resolve: I would plant again, even if I didn't gather until late August, even if I didn't gather at all. Even in the garden, I must be a "faith-er," the verb form of "faith" that we don't have in English, a word much more definite than "believer." I have to faith God's intentions, even in the midst of what my eyes see as harsh reality.

Today I have small bean plants struggling to grown in the intense heat of July in Tennessee. Because they were not established before the temps soared, they need extra care and attention, and possibly won't yield a large harvest with robust beans.

Even my neighbors have noticed the failed crop and are questioning me about my field's lack, especially since the garden across the street is producing 15 pounds a day of yellow squash. All my neighbors have seen is my bending low above the ground to search for any sign of life.

The point, however, is not that I have beans to eat; I can go to the Franklin Farmers' Market to buy all I need on Saturday mornings or to the Nashville Market on any other day.

No, the point is whether I will hang my body on the covenant promise of God to interject Himself in all my circumstances (Romans 8:28)for His purposes, even if my beans don't grow...the great "YET" of Habakkuk 3:18a, testing to see if I will remember God above and beyond my disappointments and discouragements and struggles here on this earth.

Even if the beans don't grow, YET I will rejoice in the Lord. I would never have thought of being a friend of a guy named Habakkuk if my beans hadn't failed.

YET there is something holy about empty holes in the ground, when I remember to dance in the dust of failure, remembering the faithfulness of my God.

If your beans aren't growing, wanna dance?

RoseAnne
posted: 07.21.2006 | 15:44:56