MY DAY WITH ATTETTE

Annette I want to thank you for such a lovely day. Thanks for sharing your heart with me and your tears.  I
feel so blessed to have you for a friend all of these years!  You see Annette is from little Pewamo.  In 1982 I went to Madonna House for a month.  The local paper did a feature article on me and my experience there.  A freind of Annettes saw the article and sent it to her because I mentioned that I was headed to The University of Steubenville to get my Master's in Christian Ministry.

Linda and I were on the elevator at  St.Thomas Moore dorm and when it opens there is Annette greeting
us!  The campus wasn't that big and she reconized me from my picture in the article.  We eventually joined a
Covenant Community together and ended up living in a house with a total of 7 women.

Annette you are an amazing wife, mother and friend!  I am so glad that the Lord brought you into my life all those years ago.If you look above you will see a pencil drawing of a man and women.  Annette's friend Freda joined us and brought it to show Annette. Annette drew that of  Freda and her husband when she was 18.  I never knew she had this talent!  I want to thank you for your openness to our Lord and your unyielding trust in Him and the plan he has for your life.  These scriptures remind me of you.

Philipians 1:20-24

"My eager expectation and hope is that I shall not be put to shame in any way, but that with all boldness, now as always, Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death.
For to me life is Christ, and death is gain.
If I go on living in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. And I do not know which I shall choose.
I am caught between the two. I long to depart this life and be with Christ, (for) that is far better.
Yet that I remain (in) the flesh is more necessary for your benefit."

Philipians 3:7-16

But whatever gains I had, these I have come to consider a loss  because of Christ.
More than that, I even consider everything as a loss because of the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have accepted the loss of all things and I consider them so much rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having any righteousness of my own based on the law but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God, depending on faith to know him and the power of his resurrection and (the) sharing of his sufferings by being conformed to his death,
if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.  It is not that I have already taken hold of it or have already attained perfect maturity,  but I continue my pursuit in hope that I may possess it, since I have indeed been taken possession of by Christ (Jesus). Brothers, I for my part do not consider myself to have taken possession. Just one thing: forgetting what lies behind but straining forward to what lies ahead,
I continue my pursuit toward the goal, the prize of God's upward calling, in Christ Jesus.
Let us, then, who are "perfectly mature" adopt this attitude. And if you have a different attitude, this too God will reveal to you.

Annette you are literally offering your life for our Lord.  You are not afraid to suffer and know that no suffering is wasted but is Redemptive when we willingly participate.  Thank you for your courage and your witness.  I love and appreciate you!