We all could use more than a few moments to occasionally ponder what luxury is and is not in our lives and how we can help others in need… The Howard Family (Mark and Tracy and their three young children, Kai, Riley and Jordan), are beautiful examples of people living their lives to help glofiy God through their intentional relationships and services to the poverty-stricken people who live in Comayagua, Honduras. Mark and Tracy, while working with the El Ayudante Missions are Chesapeake Church’s staffing extension there. Regularly throughout the year, Chesapeake Church members visit the Howard Family and support El Ayudante’s efforts. This year, it’s our turn, and I am so looking forward to my eminent few moments to lend a hand painting, digging latrines, setting up water filters, providing vacation bible school for the children, attending their local church services, and most of all sharing loving experiences in a culture who’s luxury is so very different from ours. Thank you, El Ayudante, The Howards, Chesapeake Church, and the people of Comayagua, Honduras.
I am doing research for a class the doctor at Clinica El Ayudante is doing for parents of malnourished kids in our area. I am sitting here reading about what it is like to try and eat healthy when you don’t have many resources. I pause, and realize I am hungry. I had a good workout with a friend this morning, and apparently I didn’t eat enough breakfast. Something to do with three little guys wanting to play soccer, and trying to take a shower within the small window where they are happily playing together. I go to my kitchen and open the cupboard, which is full of healthy and yummy choices. Maybe I’m not hungry, I’m thirsty. So I go to my water cooler and fill my clean bottle with crystal clear, filtered, cold water. All this time, my mind is processing what I have been reading.
Census records from 1870-1900 reveal that my maternal great grandfather, John Carpenter Ford (1864-1961)--one of the last of 2 survivors of 19th Century Indian Wars and infantryman of Company D., 17th Infantry--was born and raised just off of Forestville Road in Forestiville, NC --known since the beginning of the 20th century as Wake Forest. In 1960, nearly … Continue reading Coincidence or Destiny?
One World. One Family. One Extraordinary Event to Benefit Alzheimer's Research: A. J. Jacobs organized the 2015 Global Family Reunion to celebrate the premise that essentially everyone on earth is related. New York Times Article By ALEX WILLIAMS MAY 8, 2015 A. J. Jacobs, the best-selling author and humorist, was hoping to get former President George H. W. … Continue reading UPDATE: The First Ever Global Family Reunion–Saturday, June 6, 2015
I'm one of those mothers/grandmothers who still uses the words "dude" or "dudes" when I'm feeling connected or playful with younger family members. And, in keeping with my research of familial and social history, I happened upon the following from mentalfloss. ALL YOU DUDES, TAKE TIME TO ENJOY!
Many of the men in our family in their younger days were beer drinkers. Today, not so much. In fact, at our family gatherings for the past 30 years we have had only non-alcoholic beverages. The Beginning of My Family's Beer Drinking Days My dad was an attractive but scrawny child, who in 1949, three years after … Continue reading “It Shines Like Liquid Gold–Sparkles Like Amber Dew”
I find it awesomely amusing and astonishingly amazing that we as a world of people ignore history, despite evidence that had we heeded its details, we could have avoided much pain, suffering, and loss. And, I say this, despite my lineage back to Pocahontas and her husband, John Thomas Rolfe through the marriage of their granddaughter, … Continue reading Tobacco Warning From 17th Century (1606)
Resurrecting Forgotten News My world explorer+ ancestry.com membership includes, among other things, a subscription to newspapers.com. Newspapers.com has searchable, digitized articles from 3,600 newspapers that date back to the 1700's and span into the 21st century. I am amazed at the navigation and intuitiveness of the application and the variety of manipulation techniques and output … Continue reading A Forgotten Story Resurrected…
Our Unbounded Heritage: 12th Century & Beyond 