Gone Fishing

Today I went fishing with my second cousin, Karl and his wife, Diane in Byron, Minnesota. It was great to get the fishing pole out and cast the line into the water... wait for that little bobber to get dunked under and tug on the line, reeling in a little sunfish or crappie fish.

Karl and Diane have done alot more fishing that I have or maybe ever will do, and that's what was fun about it, too - they love to fish! They don't need to be reeling in a big halibut in Alaska... nope, just fishing in the reservoir for little fish was fun for them, too.

I caught 5 little fish in all... nothing even big enough to eat. But it was fun to stand next to the water and remember that fishing takes patience.

This is a good lesson for all of us... and no surprise that Jesus recruited fishermen to become fishers of men. It takes patience. Not a very common commodity in this day and age.

Thanks, Karl and Diane, for reminding me of the fun and the fruitfulness of patience in fishing.

By the way, Honey went fishing with us, too... and he learned a thing or two as well! Honey likes fishing!

Blessings,

Belinda

Enjoying Minnesota

Last week I had some vacation time in northern Minnesota with a life-long friend, Marcia. We hiked, looked for shiny agate rocks on the shore of Lake Superior, and went out in the evenings in search of forest wildlife.
In many ways it was just a restful week with a dear friend - the kind that you can enjoy being silent with or just go your separate ways for a while.
My gratefulness has grown as I've received God's shalom, here in my home place: Minnesota.


Here are some photos I took while on vacation. By the way, this flower is the rare state flower of Minnesota: the Lady Slipper. We found a patch of them near the cabin we stayed in!
Blessings,
Belinda

Happy Honey

Last night Honey and I went to EarthDog training.

Earthdog (which is what "terrier" actually means) is a skill that terriers of all sorts can develop and compete in. What we did last night, as beginners, was to introduce Honey to rats (in a cage) to see if he has hunting instinct. A+ in that department! Then he had to crawl through a small wooden tunnel about 4 feet long. No problem there, either. Then he had to follow a scented trail through the grass to find the rat cage - he was very quick in this, too. Finally we took him to the earthdog course - this is an underground maze of tunnels that open up in certain sections so you can start your dog close to the end (which is where the cage of rats is) or midway or at the beginning. The entire maze is probably about 20-25 feet in length, including one 'dead end'. The terriers have to go through the entire length, following the scent to the right end and then bark for 20 seconds at the cage of rats. Honey was able to tunnel from the last section to the end (which included one turn) and find the rats and bark for that time.

This may sound like an odd exercize for many of you, but it's a joy to see your dog do what it was bred to do. Cute little West Highland White Terriers were bred to control vermin (rats, mice, rabbits, etc.) on farm properties in Scotland. My Westie has this same blood in him and would love to help control the gray squirrel population here in Minneapolis (thousands upon thousands!), he is fascinated with them! He used to be fascinated with cats, but they are not at all interesting to him compared with the squirrels.

Well, it was great fun and the organizers said that Honey will most likely have no problem earning the title of Junior or even Senior Earthdog this year! The trials are in September, so we'll be practicing every other week until then.

The picture above is a very tired Honey after being Mr. Earthdog last evening.

Blessings,

Belinda (aka "Earthdog Mom")

What's the buzzzzzz....?

Believe it or not, my little retreat in northern Minnesota ended with a bout of malaria!

Yep, I had the whole thing: high fever, headaches, chills, sweats, fainting, nausea - one big total YUK!

Not a nice way to end my retreat, but I was very thankful to get back home, get to the doc, and get some antibiotic treatment.

Because I fainted I hurt my back and so now I'm getting some treatment for that as well. My goodness, who would have thought this might happen?

I'm so thankful my life, my time, my days are in God's hands and I can totally trust Him.

All these years that I've travelled back and forth to Africa and other 3rd world countries and have never gotten malaria... and now, I get all the way back home to the USA and it hits me.

For those of you who thought this couldn't be possible (and I was one of those), apparently you can get bit by a malaria mosquito and the parasite remains dormant in your liver up to 1 or 2 years, when suddenly you get all the symptoms. This is not the "normal" way, but it sure is one of the ways it happens.

So, it could have been when I was in Egypt, or Rwanda, or Indonesia, or.... the Lord only knows, but I'm thankful I didn't get malaria in one of those places. I go to those places to be in ministry and 100% available to the people - it would not be great to get sick there for that reason but also because the health care systems there are much different and sometimes not very nice. God knew that, too.

So, I've been resting up and reading and enjoying being at home. I just took the last medication this evening...

"I trust in You, o Lord, I say You are my God. My times are in Your hands."