Christian Spam?

I received the following spam message in my special spam Gmail. Not only is it one of the more clever spam specimens I have seen, it could also be targeted at gullible Christians. :)

Dear Beloved ,

It is by the grace of God that I received Christ,having known the
truth,I had no choice than to do what is lawful and right
in the sight of God for eternal life and in the sight of man for
witness of God & his mercies and glory upon my life.
I am Mrs.Sheila Johnson the wife of Mr Harold Johnson,my husband worked
with the Chevron/Texaco in Kenya for twenty
years before he died in the year 2001.We were married for ten years
without a child. My Husband died after a brief illness that
lasted for only four days.

Before his death we were both born again Christians.
Since his death I decided not to re-marry or get a child outside my
matrimonial home which the Bible is against.When my late
husband was alive he deposited the sum of  £9,000,000.00Million Great
Britain Pound.
with a bank company in Asia .

Presently,this money is still with the Bank and the management just
wrote me as the beneficiary to come forward to sign for the
release of this money or rather issue a letter of authorization to
somebody to receive it on my behalf if I can not come over.

Presently,I'm in a hospital in Kenya where I have been undergoing
treatment for esophageal cancer.I have since lost my ability
to talk and my doctors have told me that I have only a few weeks to
live.It is my last wish to see this money distributed to charity
organizations anywhere in the World.Because relatives and friends have
plundered so much of my wealth since my illness,I
cannot live with the agony of entrusting this huge responsibility to
any of them.

Please,I beg you in the name of God to help me Stand and collect the
Funds from the Bank.

I want a person that is God fearing that will use this money to fund
churches,orphanages and widows propagating the word of
God and to ensure that the house of God is maintained.
The Bible made us to understand that blessed is the hand that giveth.I
took this decision because I don't have any child that will
inherit this money and my husband's relatives are not Good  and I
don't want my husband's hard earned money to be misused
by them.

As soon as I receive your reply I shall give you the contact of my
attorney who is in Asia as he will be the one to assist you in laying
claims for this funds.

Kindly send your reply to my private email address which is as follows:

mrs.sheilajohnson61@gmail.com

Your Sister in Christ,
Mrs.sheila Johnson.

Only let your conduct be worthy of the Gospel of Christ...

“Even a child makes himself known by his acts,

by whether his conduct is pure and upright.”

-                 Proverbs 20:11

“The way of the guilty is crooked, but
the conduct of the pure is upright.”

-                 Proverbs 21:8

Brothers, God has given us life and breathe and precious little time on this earth. Let us redeem these days as followers of Christ building each other up daily in the Lord.

“Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, in all purity.”                   -                 1 Timothy 4:12.

How are we to treat our brothers and sisters with “all purity”?

God has commanded us to be men and women seeking His kingdom first. (Matthew 6:33) We are supposed to be the unified body of Christ                 (1 Corinthians 12:12-31) fighting for purity within ourselves, our family, and our churches. Let us please not distract each other on our quest towards Godliness. (1 Timothy 4:7, 6:11, 2 Timothy 2:22) The following is a couple things I have learned from gossip and its effects.

Gossip

•      Violates the 8^th commandment (Ex. 20:16)
•      Breeds bitterness (Prov. 25:18)
•      Harbors deceit (Proverbs 24:28)
•      Destroys friendships (Proverbs 16:28)

I could add more, but I know from personal experience that gossip can be painful emotionally. That last one was contributed by Kristin. (See comments) I hope and pray that our focus will be shifted wholly towards the One who gave us life and breath and redeemed us from sin and death.


Praise the Lord!  :)

Michigan Excursion

Good day to you all! Here is the first post about my trip to Michigan. It was an amazing trip. The main reason for driving the 14 hours was my aunt. She had been sick for over a month and needed help catching up with household necessities. Her husband also desired assistance with many outdoor chores. Before we went, I made the special request that our to-do list would be long and posted prominently! :)

First, here are some photos from the trip there.

Doesn't that look like I have a spoiled rotten little sister with heaven in the back seat? hehe... Nah, it is because we love Kayla and allowed her to have all the blankets and pillows for her tent construction project. I must say, she was very creative!

When we arrived, the list had been written on a marker board halfway from floor to cealing and written in about 24 point font. We set to work after a good night sleep and a nourishing breaking of the fast. :)

It is time to introduce the family and my excellent helpers!

Of course, we have to introduce Kayla my dear younger sister!

The oldest child in the family. His name is Joel and he is 12. Let's see how can I describe Joel? He is very talkative and works very hard when not under the influence of his younger brother Austin. ;)

Then we have the before mentioned Austin. He can be a little rambunctious and is the one that would greet you with a pile of stuffed animals being thrown in your face. ;)

This is Nathan and he is also a very hard worker. Kayla and Nathan were almost inseparable at times during the vacation. The loved working and playing with each other.

Lastly, but not least. We have my adorable cousin Calvin. Calvin is a very unique child. When he is told by an authority to do something he will obey and continue obeying until he is told he may quit. He is one that will not quit until the job is done!

I wish I had time to write in more extensive detail everything we did, but here is my general work schedule.

Wednesday
- Tore out fence from the forest and made tree cages to deprive the deer of their delicious snack

Thursday
- Power washed caulk and rust from pole barn window frames. (I was soaked from head to toe!)
- Joel and I moved several hundred pounds of industrial strength electrical boxes in the barn
- Played capture the flag with my four cousins and Kayla (A favorite tradition among the cousins)

Friday
- Primed the barn window frames with oil based primer and a couple very enthusiastic helpers! :)
- Swam in their mosquito infested pond in the afternoon with the cousins

Saturday
- Painted the final coat of latex paint on the barn window frames
- Caulked the window panes in the barn on the South side of the building (Caulking is an art in which I am not yet proficient!) Yes, there is a story here...

Sunday
- Attended a wonderful Father's Day church service straight from Psalm 127 and 128

One can tell that reformed church was alive and well. One of the more recent characteristics of a church body  fully committed to the Lord is the attendance of young people and college students. The statistics are frightening how many people my age leave the church and never return. This is a testament of the families that
make up this segment of the body of Christ.

- Had a family picnic at a local park and played tag and capture the flag with the cousins again!
- Attended the evening service at the same church building

Monday
- Dug a trench around the perimeter of the north side of the barn. This would later be used for adding some steel siding.

- Went to a neat thrift store in town called Hidden Treasures where I found some slacks and shorts
- All the work and activities had finally worn me out, I developed a whopper of a headache and needed rest.

I was asked to make a funny face. :)

Do you trust them to do your banking??

Tuesday
-  Cleaned bathrooms really well or until my aunt begged me to stop! (Another story here) :)
- Watched children while my aunt had a doctor's visit
- Played capture the flag and had a water balloon fight
- Went to Nathan's baseball game
- Grandparents arrived from northern MI

Wednesday
- Researched how to send HTML code with Thunderbird
- Attempted setting up a scanner to communicate with the computer properly
- Departed for home after lunch about 1:00 p.m.

Before we departed though, we had a stowaway! :D

Before I conclude, I must add a few more pictures of my adorable cousin Calvin. :D

The excursion back was quite an adventure! I will try to include more detail in that post. Stay tuned!

New Post coming soon...

Some of you know that I have been in Michigan the last week and had some exciting adventures... Stay tuned for a more complete report in the next few days! :)

Marooning and Exhileration

*newspaper warning* hehe... First one this summer.

It is a good thing someone has time to write a blog post every once in a long while. hehe... ;)

Yeah, I thought K did a great job with the door. I still don't know exactly what "modge podge" looks like beforehand, but it seems the possibilities are endless.

The last couple days for me have been rather exhilarating!

Monday, the TCS team, minus me, went storm chasing in western Nebraska. They left around noon and left Mrs. T, Heidi, and me at the office.

About 10 minutes to five, Mrs. T looked at me and asked me whether I had a key to lock up the office. Umm... no... Then it dawned on us that Michael and Ben had taken the only two keys with them and they were 3 hours away.

hehe... So, we tried contacting the leasor but was unsuccessful reaching him to bail us out.

As 5:00 loomed, Mrs. T and Heidi went back to the house and fixed some supper and brought it down to the marooned one at the office.

Mrs. T called Michael and found out that he had lost his phone but would return as soon as it was found.

About this time, I just couldn't keep from laughing at how God had worked things out. :D

As you already know, God miraculously showed the team where Michael had lost his phone.

I was at the office that day until about 10 p.m. when Michael returned with a key to lock up. Before he came I was tempted to use whatever I could find and make a bed for the night. lol

The next day brought even more excitement!

The boys decided at about 4:00 p.m. that they were going on their first bike trip of the year. The evening's events were planned like this.

Josiah: We should go biking to the Platte again.

Ben: Let's go tonight!

Josiah: Great!!

Everyone returned back to the house at about 5:10 and with only a couple minutes warning, Heidi had an impressive array of delicious food packed in a cooler ready to go! You can tell she has had some practice in the past... ;)

Michael had previously arranged to visit a foreclosed house that had some old computer junk the realtors wanted to discard. We picked up Rance, and the three of us went in this house that had previously been owned by a cat lover and still wreaked!

We found an old mac computer that, if it worked, would sell for four grand! It was in pieces though and the chances were too slim that we didn’t bother rescuing it. Most of it, was just as it was advertised – junk!

After picking up Peter to come along on our bike ride and dropping off Rance, we drove to Josiah and Micah’s house and got ready to begin what would become a very memorable evening…

The bike ride began innocently enough. The only exception was that Peter’s bike was made specifically for BMX racing and was very low profile compared with the mountain bikes everyone else was riding. Consequently, Peter had a hard time keeping up. I was also lagging farther and farther behind.

I thought my recent 2.7 mile morning runs had given me the strength necessary to ride the 10.5 miles to the Platte River. I managed to keep up with Peter most of the time and appreciated everyone else who waited at stop signs for us that lagged behind.

After crossing 25^th in Kearney, Michael declared that he wanted Peter to ride his bike and Michael was going to suffer on Peter’s tiny bike for the remainder of the trip. After a handle bar fell off while crossing the tracks, Michael handed me the water bottle and we were off again! Upon reaching Coal Chute Rd, I just really struggled keeping up with the crew and kept falling farther and farther behind.

It got to the point where I could barely see Michael’s bike ahead of me. I was crawling along as fast as my legs could peddle in the wind, yet I was gaining very little ground. Convinced I was just weak in the legs, I kept going and finally got to the Platte at least 10 minutes after everyone else.

The other guys had already shed their shirts and were swimming in the Platte when I got through the weeds and across the half submerged railroad tie bridge. Michael soon returned and declared it was supper time! After a nice dinner of apples, granola bars, peanut butter sandwiches, nuts, carrots, and white chocolate macadamia nut cookies everyone except me swam for at least 20 more minutes.

I put the food away and just relaxed after the long hard ride. I knew that I would have a difficult time riding back if I tired myself out swimming. About 8:05, Michael announced we had better begin our return trip. Knowing I would quickly fall behind again, I decided to start back while they were packing up.

Before I left, another interesting group of people came hauling flotation devices and a large 12 pack of beer. I was not disappointed we were leaving. J I got back to my bike and made sure it was in working order for the trip back. Feeling the rear tire, I found it was completely flat! No wonder I had such a hard time keeping up with everyone!

Micah also discovered that his front tire was flat. Great…. Unless we put two people on two bikes, a couple of us would need to find some alternate transportation. Michael resolutely decided he was going to run Micah’s bike all the way back. (Yes, the whole 10.5 miles.) I knew that I would not have the energy to run such a long distance, so Peter’s dad came and picked up Micah’s and my bike and Peter and me. We drove past Michael huffing and puffing down the road but he refused to ride along.

Michael continued running and Micah road Michael’s bike beside him all the 10.5 miles back to the starting place. Benjamin and Josiah rode leisurely back since they both still had fully functioning bikes.

After being dropped off at the T’s, I received a call at about 9:30 asking where Michael and Micah went. Oops! I told Ben that Michael was still running back. Ben wisely decided to pick them up in the van. By the time, they found Michael running, he was less than a mile away and said that he would persist and go the rest of the way.

Needless to say, Michael’s g-chat status the next day was the following: “I feel weird”. LOL!      

ChatVille - Red flags anyone?

I thought a recent email I received about a new Facebook game was absolutely ridiculous yet representative of the present post-modern culture.

We're excited to announce the launch of ChatVille, a brand new Facebook game for discovering cool new people! ChatVille lets you video chat with random Facebook users in a safe environment while earning compliments, unlocking badges, and leveling up in a race to become ChatVille Champion!

You can even video chat with all your Facebook friends for the first time ever right from the Facebook website. Take screenshots of your adventures, make classy filmstrips, and meet fun new people in this addicting and engaging Facebook game.

(Emphasis added and subtracted)

So now, people around the world are connected in one place via Facebook video chat! While that can reap some benefits, I think the negative possibilities are alarming! What do you think?

So, you need a piano hauled?

This morning I had the day all planned out. But then God through some rather interesting twists in the day. It is further proof that life around the Tillotson's is hardly ever boring! lol

After finding another antique piano for K's studio at a garage sale, Michael got on the phone and the conversation went something like this...

Michael: Hey! Do you like hauling Pianos??

Victim: Uh, umm... yeah... SURE!!

So  that is how it went and off we went to round up a truck or trailer and a bunch of guys.

We hauled the piano and hired a couple human tie downs. :) Luke and me signed up for the job.

I felt like I was riding one of those convertibles in a parade waving at everyone. Most people whizzed past us wanting desperately to lose us. They weren't the only ones... ;) Some were kind enough to wave back.

We got the piano all delivered.

There it is, all secured in the back of the trailer.

The ordeal required much contemplation and careful consideration from many brilliant minds! :)

After it was all said and done, a suggestion was made to manually pull the trailer a couple miles back to its owner. Sadly, it didn't happen. It would have been fun!