Storytime Tapestry Newsletter

The newsletter devoted to spreading love and cultural awareness around the world.

September 25, 2006

Today’s announcements

 A happy birthday wish goes out to Beth Lochridge: BEVLOCH734@aol.com and Ronni Shaw, caperabbit@semo.net who is feeling poorly these days.  Let’s cheer them both up with happy birthday wishes and love and laughter.

This update comes from my Son-in-law's Mother, Linda. Dolores is Linda's

Sister. Sadly, Jerry passed away this afternoon. He is no longer suffering

and for that the family is thankful. Please pray for the people who beat and

robbed Jerry. Pray that they will acknowledge what they have done and come

to a saving knowledge of our LORD. Thus far, they have arrested 2 women and

2 men.

Wanted to let you know that Jerry passed away today around 1:00.  His body

is being taken to VA for autopsy.  His family is planning a memorial service

on Monday.  The detective says more arrests are pending.  Thanks for all

your prayers.  Dolores (his ex-wife) wants to thank everyone for their

prayers and continue to pray for her.   Love, Linda

Now onto the good stuff!

Today’s Queue Stories

~**~**~

Sabrina: A Tail Wags

Mike Firesmith

It was back in the late eighties when Sabrina and became friends. Holly and Sherry made frequent trips to Atlanta and one weekend they asked me if I would take care of Sabrina while they were gone. This was to be the first time that Sabrina and Holly had been apart since Sabrina had been weaned. While we played together and she let me walk her on a leash, no one really knew how she would react to living with me over the weekend.

Of all the breeds of dogs I've encountered Chows are the most set in who they are. Some people ignorantly pass their behavior off as aggressive but truth be told, Chows merely have a very structured way of looking at life. They can be very much one person dogs, but that is usually a function of one person understanding what they need and want. Sabrina needed a little more space than most dogs do. She did not want to lie under anyone's feet and she didn't want anyone up in her face all the time. Sabrina and played hard but I understood that when she was tired or wasn't in the mood to play, then I was to back off of her. Sabrina had a handful of growls that she used to let me know where I needed to be. I never ignored any of them. Most people who came over while she and I were playing assumed that I was being killed. We tussled in the vacant lot behind Sherry and Holly's apartment one morning and someone called the cops to report a man being attacked by a dog. But I knew Sabrina's vocabulary and she knew mine.

" Back off." I would tell people when they came over to my apartment and Sabrina sat at my side. An outstretched hand was met with bared teeth and a growl that was not so much as a warning but a promise of bloodshed. Sabrina felt comfortable around me but she was having issues with the strange place. She wouldn't leave me. I let her stay close to me and told my roommate, and our friends, that they would have to adjust to there being a certain amount of space that was off limits to humans. When my next door neighbor decided to pull Sabrina's tail while she was sitting on the sofa he discovered that she had no qualms about going over the top of the sofa after him. I let her back him up against the wall and hold him there, with snarls and barks, until I thought he'd learned to respect her tail. We had a good time that weekend, Sabrina and I.

I am continuously amazed at the number of people who assume that an animal becomes a toy simply because she's beautiful. Sabrina was an amazing looking creature. When I walked her there were a lot of people who wanted to admire her, and more often than not, would offer to pet her. Sabrina didn't want to be touched by strangers. She didn't like it. Being on a leash negated retreat so that left defensive language which was about five seconds away from blood. Chows aren't overly large dogs but even a fifty pound dog can make a mess of you if she wants.

Unless you know what you're doing, are ready and able to accept the consequences of your actions, and you really, really know your dog, don't do what I'm about to relate to you. The most common form of cosmetic surgery preformed on children is facial reconstruction due to dog attack. Children do not realize that getting close to a dog's face is paramount to challenging that dog to a fight. Unless a dog knows you and loves you, getting that close to the business end is a bad idea. Most dogs who are pets warm up quickly to humans and face to face contact results in puppy kisses. Be wrong about this once and you are going to need a decent surgeon. Pretend dogs are people with better teeth. Would you get up in a person's face when you just met them?

Sabrina's aggressive defensive behavior would eventually cause trouble for her, and I knew it. The fact that she retreated away from company reinforced her isolation. So when I walked her and people would come up to us and admire her I would kneel down and put my face close to Sabrina's. I was gambling that Sabrina would not take a shot at someone with my face so close to hers and I was also gambling that she would not take a shot at me for doing this. I experimented with letting young women get close to her. Sabrina didn't like men, but she would tolerate women. I would tell the women to hold out their hand and let Sabrina smell of them. Walking her near Valdosta State University guaranteed a steady flow of young female dog lovers. Sabrina threatened to kill the first dozen or so, but after that, she began to realize that there were a lot of people out there who were in love with her simply because she was who and what she was. I would run her through her series of tricks, sit, sit up, bang! Dead dog ( at this she would roll over on her back) and people loved it. After a while I noticed that she was beginning to enjoy the attention. Quite honestly, so was I.

" Mike, Susan is trying to pet Sabrina." Sherry and Holly were throwing a fairly wild party and Sabrina was sitting it out in Holly's bedroom. A drunk woman had slipped in and had Sabrina cornered. When I got there the woman was kneeling in front of Sabrina, cooing at her and Sabrina had her teeth bared and was snarling. Susan was a mistake away from losing a chunk of her face. When she saw me Sabrina stopped snarling. I grabbed Susan and threw her on the bed, away from Sabrina. I had never tried it before, and didn't stop to think about it. I reached down and picked Sabrina up in my arms and carried her out of the apartment, and took her to my place. From that day forward, that was where she stayed when there was a party at their place.

Holly moved back to Atlanta in 1991. We talked about Sabrina staying with me, but she couldn't bear to part with her, and I understood. I lost touch with Holly a year or so later after I moved away, and haven't heard from her since then. The day that woman put Sabrina in that van and drove away I went home and cried.


Take Care,
Mike Firesmith

~**~**~

Pastor Mendel
An Intro: My Adventure
By Vance Agee

About 1980 Pastor Mendel Daningburg and family came to the Ransomville Free Methodist Church in the Hamlet of Ransomville, Niagara County, WNY. For me, this was the beginning of a new chapter in my Christian Life and my relationship with God!

Mendel, an excellent preacher, had a special goal: to earn a doctor of ministries degree, a huge undertaking. I was blessed to be invited to serve on his special committee for this degree. As a school administrator with a master’s and two years of seminary, I felt at home with Mendel and the Committee. I suggested a dissertation title: “the transference of wholeness”: what God does through his people to bring healing and sanctifcation to others! Mendel liked it. Mendel maintained an active church and community mission and had a wonderful family.

My wife and I had the great privilege to have Mendel dedicate and baptize our infant daughter. (For those who believe only in adult baptism, Jesus said: “Let the little children come to me!” At 22, when walking down Madison Avenue on her way to a job interview at Calvin Klein, she stopped at an unlocked church to pray. She had her first NYC job on the Monday after a Friday graduation!)

Then the word struck: Mendel had cancer! Mendel inspired much prayer on his behalf. He was admitted to Roswell Park in Buffalo for intense chemotherapy.

Now my personal story: God used the events in Mendel’s life to reach me as He had not before. I had been working with a very troubled student at school and wanted Mendel’s advice and help. Frustrated by his physical absence, one day I drove to a deli and in the car “yelled at God: I need Mendel!”

God – within a nano second – “yelled” quietly back to me: “I need him where he is! You do what you need to do!”

Shocked, I nearly fell out of the car. This was the first time in which God had told me off! I will never forget it. God was using Mendel at a Cancer Institute.

Prayers continued, and Mendel achieved remission – but we did not know the extent of the damage caused by the strong chemo!

In victory, a stage full of conference pastors came one Sunday and appeared around Mendel. I went down front to join. While there, I felt something filling my feet, ankles, legs, and body. I had a peace beyond any gun being pointed at me! The Holy Spirit!

A very short time later, we had to let Memdel move on to the Kingdom.

As God had told me months before:

“I need Mendel where He is; YOU do what you have to!”

God bless you, Mendel, in you timeless work!

See you soon.

Amen.

IXTHUS

Vance Agee

vgagee@adelphia.net

~**~**~

Poetry Section

~**~**~

God's Plan
Carol Meeks

Now God chose Israel
to be His example
so other nations would
see His love and sample.

God is totally holy
wants all of us to be
like Him in every way
cleansed from sin and set free.

God's the same as back then,
when He walked on the earth,
announced eternal life
for believers of His birth.

And God is not partial.
He wants all to claim Him
and to find salvation
so our future isn't dim.

© 2006 Carol Dee Meeks
c_pmeeks@hotmail.com
http://home.midsouth.rr.com/kmhomepage/homePage.html

~**~**~

Eighty Plus

Carol Meeks

The phone rings loud and brings a stir
with voice in tones we barely heard.
My spouses' sibling cries with slur;
their mom in coma, speech absurd.

We travel miles across the state
with rain like walls of water falls
and middle line of lane like slate.
I'm blind at night.  I spoke in drawls.

Yet she controls her sons of three
and celebrates decades of eight.
In psycho state and misery
her years reign down as fate in hate.

For years I feared her dominance,
now watch her lose her eminence.
Oh Lord!  I pray help me to be
much kinder when I am eighty.

© 2006 Carol Dee Meeks
c_pmeeks@hotmail.com
http://home.midsouth.rr.com/kmhomepage/homePage.html

 ~**~**~

Fruitless Temporary Fog
Carol Meeks

His doctor's news still rings in my ear
of renal failure, dialysis near.
With surgery done and catheter in,
a hernia repaired, our world in a spin.

Manual exchanges five times a day,
three weeks the kidneys would cleanse with the spray,
but hernia problems surfaced again
another surgery-when will this end?

The pace was fast no time to slow down
but church family kept faces from frown.
Again manual exchanges five times a day;
three weeks met ten weeks, no time for play.

So tired at night no time for God.
My Bible collected dust from this fog.
He brought us through it and Him alone.
His strength was our strength, and was on loan.

I know He held us in His hands.
I know He loved us as seashore sands.
He is awesome, He is our God.
He is everything, and Light in this fog.

© 2006 Carol Dee Meeks
c_pmeeks@hotmail.com
http://home.midsouth.rr.com/kmhomepage/homePage.html~**~

Readers Feedback

This article, Because You’re Here - by Joan Clifton Costner..............touched me deep today. 
What a blessing it was. carol dee meeks

Senior Writers

Chief writer: Sharon Bryant

Chief researcher/historian: Hartson Dowd

Agee, Vance; Apted, Violet; Baker, Kathy; Batt, Al; Berry, Nell; Blaine, Pamela; Boda, Ginger; Booher, Paula; Buhagiar, Victor; Cassady, B.J.; Costner, Joan Clifton; Cavalera, Robyn; Crider, Mark; Dees, Mary; Deming, Barb; Doherty, Maria;  Dowd, Hartson; Dowd, Helen; Gilbert, Robert, Jr.; Gold, Ron; Goodier, Steve; Grisham, Mary-Ellen; Braun-Haley, Ellie; Harris, Kathy Anne; Henry, Linda Ann; Hunt, Sharlett; Hymes, Christina; Jacobson, Gary; Kiser, Roger Dean; Kerens, Claudia; Kevin, Tim; Jenkins, Pamela; Liles, Norma; Lily Jodi Flesberg; Lock, Joyce; Marlor, Janice Bumbalough; Mazzella, Joe; Meeks, Carol; Mizrany, Mary Carter; Morris, Deepak; Ojeibge, Georgewaters; Petry, Dianna Doles; Roberts, Susan; Shiveley, Debra; Shaw, Bob; Sims, Richard; Smith; Michael; Streidel, Saskia; Swarner, Ken; Vaknin, Sam; Verhoeff, Jan; Walker, Bill; Walker, Joe; Warner, Gordon, K; Walsh, Sue; Weymouth, Barbara J.; Whirity, Kathy;

Wainland, David; Westerfer, Clara; White Robert;

Storytime Tapestry Staff

Carol Roach - Founder/publisher

Thelma Hartselle - Co-Founder, Moderator

Clara Westerfer – moderator

Bob Johnston - moderator