The New Life, Inc.

My Dear wonderful children,

As I was taking my walk this morning, I was thinking how good it is to be alive. We had a good day yesterday celebrating Easter Sunday.  We went to church and Chris played some of the music.  He did a wonderful job and he folks here really enjoy his music.  He starts playing about half hour before the church service and many come early just to listen and sing along.

Gloria and Joe came over and joined us for dinner at the hall. Gloria is my next to the oldest sister and she has a home in the park next door.  She spends about eight months in Florida every winter. Joe is a nice fellow.  He has a hearing problem, which is too bad because he loves music and likes to play the piano.  

Joe shared something with me several years ago that really blessed me.  I had a problem with the church, with the ritual, pomp and ceremonies; I didn’t like them very well.  I happened to mention it one day when I was talking with Joe and he said to me; “I like all of that, I really enjoy it.  It brings the whole service alive.”  He continued; “I love parades with all the ceremonies and the floats and music and the clowns.  I think it is great. It does something for me, it stirs up my spirit and makes me feel good.”

Joe helped me to see something new.  I took a new look at the church service and at parades. I saw they were important and that if we allow it, these special ceremonies can touch us in a very special way.  They can help us get in touch with some wonderful things that happened in our past.  I thank Joe for sharing that truth with me.  I now see that somewhere in the past I was robbed.  Now, that blessing has been restored to me.

My dear children watch carefully that you are not robbed of some very precious things. We have a lot of robbers and thieves and some of them are in our homes and churches. They are not even aware that they are robbers; but if they steal something valuable from you they are. You can also be a thief if you rob someone else.

What are some of the valuable things we can steal?  For many years I lost the joy and spiritual blessing of ceremonies and parades.  We also can be robbed of peace, joy, friends and things we enjoy doing because someone else does not want to do it.

Well because of Joe, I now enjoy ceremonies and parades.  They are important in my life. Yesterday was Easter Sunday and I enjoyed it very much.  The ceremonies reminded me of what Jesus did for me on the cross and all the years of my life.  Last Sunday Pauline and I sang a song at church that we enjoy doing from time to time. The song we sang was “He touched Me.”  Before we sang, I told the congregation the name of the song we were going to sing and asked the question; “How many of you can put up your hand to acknowledge the Lord has touched you.” The church was full and almost every hand went up.  That was such a blessing to see that Jesus had touched all these lives.

Easter Sunday was such a blessing to me because it reminded me that the Son had risen.  He had not only risen for me but for so many others as well. My children I hope and pray that every one of you can lift your hand and say; “He Touched Me”!  And may the Son rise in your heart every day of your life.All my love and prayers,

Your Loving Father

My dear Children,

I now regret that I did not get to know my grandfather better.  We lived together in the same home from the time I was one and a half years old until he died. Of course I knew he lived there and I remember as a child that he used to hold me and rock me in his old rocking chair by the kitchen window.  If I remember correctly he could still see a little bit from one eye. He had lost one eye somehow and had a glass eye to replace it. But he was going blind in the other eye. In a few years he was totally blind. Today they could have saved his sight.

I don’t remember him talking very much.  He would sit many hours a day rocking by the window.  He did have a radio that he would listen to every night. I often wondered what he would think about all those hours. I don’t remember hearing him complain about his blindness. One day he spoke to me about it, he said; “I would give anything to be able to see you playing in the yard”. That is the only time I ever heard him say anything about his eyes.

Now I don’t really remember anything about him dying. It seems like all of a sudden he was gone.  I am sure he must have died there at home; back then most people did die at home.

Even blind, he tried to do what he could.  There was a wire four or five feet from the ground between the house and the barn and he would go to the barn several times a day and try to clean out the cows and take care of things.  There were four bedrooms in our house one on the first floor and three on the second floor. My grandmother was a big woman and she used the room on the first floor. I think she had problems with her legs. My sisters used one of the rooms upstairs my dad another and I had to sleep with grandfather. He slept quiet enough, but what I remember is that both he and the bed had an old person smell and every now and then we ran into a bedbug problem. The other thing was the thunder jug! It was under the bed and that was what my grandfather used but all too often. I had the job of dumping it out. I am glad those days are behind me.

I was the baby of the family and I was so wrapped up in myself.  I was the center of the world and as a result I learned nothing about my family. I am sure my grandfather could have told me some wonderful stories about his life and his family. I believe he came down from Canada.  There is a big Nault family up there. I never got to know any of them. My grandmother was an Indian woman I will tell you more about her another time.

My grandfather built the house we lived in.  I think he was a blacksmith and he might have had a accident doing that and lost his eye. We had a blacksmith shop near our house and the lighting hit it one night and it burned to the ground.

I wish I could tell you more about grandpa.  He was a kind man and I often wonder what he thought about all those hours. I believe he knew the Lord Jesus, because he had such peace

I like to think he spent some of that time praying for all of us. For all of my children reading this, learn as much as you can about your family. Listen to their stories and tell your stories to whoever will listen. Pass something along to your loved ones. With the computers today it is so easy to write and save and pass these things along to the next generation.

I want you to take time to do this! Thank you for it!
I also want you to pray for one another and do it every day.
The Lord hears your prayers and he does answer them.
I pray for all of you very often.

Your loving Father