Least Favorite Day of The YEAR!

October 31st is my least favorite day of the year. I can't stand all the ghoul, evil, and devilish stuff it celebrates. What I hate most about it, is why I have to explain to other Christians why we do not partake in the Halloween festivities. "Aw, Martha, you mean you don't let your kids trick or treat? or dress up? It's all in fun!" Well if you call, celebrating and glorifying the devil, fun then you go right ahead...as for me and my house we are serving the LORD!

Don't get me wrong, growing up, I loved Halloween, what kid wouldn't love a candy holiday, a candy party and dress up party at school...none the less...I even dressed as a witch in the 3rd grade...usually  my mom had me dressed as a gypsy or clown or something...and we trick or treated in the name of FUN! But after becoming a Christian, hanging up skeletons, witches and  vampire bats and such seemed to be opposite of what my life stands for...and as a teen...Halloween ceased being celebrated at my house.

Over the years, my hubby and I  have taken our kids to the "fall festivals" at church and our kids dressed up for fall festivals...but my kiddos did not put their candy in a Jack o lantern, nor did they make jack o lanterns for craft projects in school. The one year my oldest was in public school ( he's the outspoken one in the family) he simply raised his hand and said...I am not allowed to put a jack o lantern face on my pumpkin because we don't celebrate the devil....LOL so he had a plain pumpkin!

Several years ago, my children came up with a new tradition for Oct. 31. We simply go to the movies and out to eat and each child gets a bag of candy treats.This year we saw The Secretariat! It was a good clean movie...it even had one of our Choir tunes from celebration choir as part of the sound track! The movies are a great place to be on Oct 31 cause no one is there!

Many people like to give out tracts and flyers to visit their church to visiting trick-o-treaters, or go to a fall festival at a local church. That's all fine and good. Our family likes our own tradition that totally gets away from what has turned into a very evil celebration.

An old high school friend, now a pastor in Alabama, recently preached a sermon on this very topic, titled Hell's Holy Holiday. It's a free itunes download. http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/cross-connection-church-auburn/id383444888?ign-mpt=uo%3D4

I recently listened to his sermon...which gave a detailed history of Halloween, and why as Christians we should not participate. I was amening the entire time I was listening. Celebrate this day with your family, but remember if it's not God-honoring run the other way.

Wild Olive Tees give-away!

I love Wild Olive tees! They are having another big give away! Here are the details straight from their blog!

We will be giving away TWO Women of Faith Packages. Each package contains two Wild Olive tees of your choosing, and two Women of Faith tickets for their Over The Top Event in Hartford, CT on November 19th and 20th.  Amie and Stefanie will be attending this conference, and we would love for you to join us there, representing Wild Olive!

AND, for those of you who don’t live close enough to attend the conference, we love you, too! So we are giving two more prize packages, each contains TWO Wild Olive tees, winner’s choice!

So there will be FOUR winners, announced Wednesday, November 10th. Entries close at midnight EST on Tuesday, November 9th, so get crackin’!

There are three ways to enter:

1. BLOG it.  5 entries.  Write up a post about our Wild Olive/Women of Faith giveaway, share a link to this post, and also a bit about Wild Olive tees. Link up below and/or post a comment on our blog with a link to your blog letting us know you entered.

2.  FACEBOOK it.  5 entries. Friend us on Facebook at Wild Olive, and become a fan of our Wild Olive Tees page, and do a post on your wall mentioning our Wild Olive/Women of Faith giveaway.  Leave a comment letting us know you have entered.

3.  TWEET it.  1 entry/tweet.  Follow us on Twitter, and link to our giveaway post, and mention the WO/WOF giveaway. Only one tweet/day will counted as an entry.

When you leave your comment, PLEASE let us know which prize package you’d prefer: the WO/WOF package or Wild Olive package.
For more chances to win, tune in to the live stream on WYCM, 90.1 FM Christian Radio.  They will be giving away FIVE WO/WOF Packages this week.  The first giveaway will be during Judy’s evening show between 6-9pm tonight.  There will also be giveaways during Stephan’s morning show between 7AM- 10 AM this week, so tune in.

Sunday snapshot: gam's birthday

Today we celebrated my mom's birthday. She turned 64 yesterday, but we celebrated today after church. We had Pioneer Woman Spaghetti Chicken, PW french bread. Honey made her famous pound cake for dessert and also her cabbage casserole.

Honey made this cake and bought the candles. She said since momma had always graced her birthday cakes with the "age" on the candles, that it was now payback time. 

Here's Gam with Honey and Pop and  2 out of 4 grandchildren (one is singing with the college group today and the other one is in China waiting on us!)

Gam blows out the candles.

Honey said "the girls" had to pose for a 4 generation photo, Shek insisted that the dog be in the photo too...LOL

Happy Birthday Gam!

Prayer Warriors UNITE

Please agree with us in Jesus' Name that we will receive our LOA(letter of acceptance) from China very soon so that we can proceed with the next steps to complete Jolie's adoption. We are more than ready to go.( well we are not packed or anything, but it won't take us to long to get packed, but we are READY!)

The Bible says, and my preacher quotes all the time that "You have not cause you ask not." AND  I am asking! I am praying for that LOA to come in soon...and I am asking for the other paper work to happen speedily too. The verse I got from the Lord just the other day was, "Is anything to difficult for me?"

I am praying and asking for favor with God and man that we can get this waiting done and get our baby girl home. Please pray diligently with us!

Blessings to you!
Martha
Zach's, Karlie's, Shek's and soon to be Jolie's Mom!