As some of you may know, Iv'e has been working to help a local woman raise money for a very special cause.  She is a political refugee from the Congo. She came here more than 7 years ago after escaping her captors, arriving on the east coast with her oldest child and her husband.  Her husband went back to the Congo to ensure that their other 4 children were safe.  When he arrived, he was captured again. The children ended up with their grandmother.  This woman didn't know what happened to her husband, so she moved to Wisconsin with her son. Meanwhile, after a year in prison, the husband escaped and went to South Africa.  He became very sick. He also was unaware of what happened to his wife until a relative found him on Facebook and contacted her. Thankfully they were reunited, and her husband is now here with her.  

They were fortunate to have Habitat for Humanity build them a house. In the Congo, her husband was a doctor running several clinics, and she was a nurse. They are both going back to school, but at present they must work menial jobs.  On limited funds they have furnished their new home and have paid the exorbitant fees to get 3 of their children passports and medical clearance to come to America.  All they need now is the money for the airline tickets (approximately $1000 each) and clothing for when they get here. We would love to help these parents bring their children home as soon as possible and see this family reunited.  When they left the Congo, the children were 3, 5, and 11 years old.  They are now 9, 11, and 17 years old, and they haven't seen their parents in 7 long years. 

. So far only $420 has been collected, and they need about $3000 total.  I know we can make a HUGE dent in this goal.  A link for donation has been set up through WFA.  You can click through on the link, and use the category "Offerings Other" and designate them "Congo Refugee Family."  You can also stop by the Social Media Table at the White Tent on Monday night during our 1st Sisterhood Night and drop off a donation or place it in our offering marked "Congo Refugee Family."

  Thank you in advance for helping to showing the love of Christ to this family!

Copy and paste this url. and go here to donate, click online giving, its under Congo Refugee Family, 

http://waukeshafirst.org/give

More Art For Sale

Three more for sale.


The three sizes as pictured are 16x20 $35.00
11x14 $25.00
Cards and Envelopes 3x5 $ 2.50

Along with the other page, Just Dance, Best Friends, and Ocean. all come with certificates of Authenticity.
The only one of these 3 originals for sale is Best Friends. (300.00) See my other posts to check out the other stuff for sale.

Art for Sale

Hey all, I have several new paintings for Sale. Originals and prints. The gyclee prints with archival ink are available in three sizes and can be ordered in other sizes. Any of then can be printed with a scripture. Awhile ago I asked God for some inspiration to paint from, and out of that I painted these. They started with the thought of a lot of pots that werent much by themselves, in fact they were dirty and broken, and yet light and life could still flow out of them from another source. That source is the fountain of life.

Prices for originals are

18x24 $500
16x20 $400

prints 16x20 $35.00
11x14 $25.00
cards 3x5 $2.50


Other paintings, "Just Dance"(original is sold), "Best Friends" , and "Ocean"
are also available in prints.

BRIEF FACTS ON THE ISRAELI CONFLICT TODAY... (It takes just 1.5 minutes to read!) It makes sense and it's not slanted. Jew and non-Jew -- it doesn't matter.

1. Nationhood and Jerusalem: Israel became a nation in 1312 BC, two thousand (2000) years before the rise of Islam....

2. Arab refugees in Israel began identifying themselves as part of a Palestinian people in 1967, two decades after the establishment of the modern State of Israel.

3. Since the Jewish conquest in 1272 BC, the Jews have had dominion over the land for one thousand (1000) years with a continuous presence in the land for the past 3,300 years.

4. The only Arab dominion since the conquest in 635 lasted no more than 22 years.

5. For over 3,300 years, Jerusalem has been the Jewish capital. Jerusalem has never been the capital of any Arab or Muslim entity. Even when the Jordanians occupied Jerusalem, they never sought to make it their capital, and Arab leaders did not come to visit.

6. Jerusalem is mentioned over 700 times in Tanach, the Jewish Holy scriptures. Jerusalem is not mentioned even once in the Koran.

7. King David founded the city of Jerusalem. Mohammed never came to Jerusalem.

8. Jews pray facing Jerusalem. Muslims pray with their backs toward Jerusalem.

9. Arab and Jewish Refugees: in 1948 the Arab refugees were encouraged to leave Israel by Arab leaders promising to purge the land of Jews. Sixty-eight percent left (many in fear of retaliation by their own brethren, the Arabs), without ever seeing an Israeli soldier. The ones who stayed were afforded the same peace, civility, and citizenship rights as everyone else.

10. The Jewish refugees were forced to flee from Arab lands due to Arab brutality, persecution and pogroms.

11. The number of Arab refugees who left Israel in 1948 is estimated to be around 630,000. The number of Jewish refugees from Arab lands is estimated to be the same.

12. Arab refugees were INTENTIONALLY not absorbed or integrated into the Arab lands to which they fled, despite the vast Arab territory. Out of the 100,000,000 refugees since World War II, theirs is the only refugee group in the world that has never been absorbed or integrated into their own people's lands. Jewish refugees were completely absorbed into Israel, a country no larger than the state of New Jersey.

13. The Arab-Israeli Conflict: the Arabs are represented by eight separate nations, not including the Palestinians. There is only one Jewish nation. The Arab nations initiated all five wars and lost. Israel defended itself each time and won.

14. The PLO's Charter still calls for the destruction of the State of Israel. Israel has given the Palestinians most of the West Bank land, autonomy under the Palestinian Authority, and has supplied them.

15. Under Jordanian rule, Jewish holy sites were desecrated and the Jews were denied access to places of worship. Under Israeli rule, all Muslim and Christian sites have been preserved and made accessible to people of all faiths.

16. The UN Record on Israel and the Arabs: of the 175 Security Council resolutions passed before 1990, 97 were directed against Israel. More than55% of all UN Security Council resolutions that were passed were against Israel, more than all the other nations combined.

17. Of the 690 General Assembly resolutions voted on before 1990, 429 were directed against Israel. That means more than 62% of all UN resolutions on all topics are directed against Israel. Is that all the UN does, vote against Israel?

18. The UN was silent while 58 Jerusalem synagogues were destroyed by the Jordanians.

19. The UN was silent while the Jordanians systematically desecrated the ancient Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives.

20. The UN was silent while the Jordanians enforced an apartheid-like a policy of preventing Jews from visiting the Temple Mount and the Western Wall.

Christmas Letter 2009

Family Fun Night frosting Christmas Cookies


MERRY CHRISTMAS !!!!

Well, I almost talked myself into doing this the old fashioned way and sending it snail mail, and it almost happened. I got such wonderful cards and Christmas letters hanging on my wall that it was a real temptation. But I think its always best to know your strengths and weaknesses, considering the assessment of my abilities, I have accepted the fact that the process of typing, printing, stuffing, buying stamps, stamping, and taking them to the post office requires too much focused attention for me. In the past ,pre-internet, I managed to do all that, but I would have to rename it Valentines letter, some years It was Happy summer. I have discovered that I suffer from age induced ADD, or as my son Mitch puts it ADOS…….Attention defecit ooooo shiny. Therefore you are receiving an online version of what I would have sent. Instructions: highlight, press print, place in your mail box, and pretend you’re delighted to receive this. After the technical delays Im experiencing today, I might have to go back to the old way.
Quick Recap. All our children are in the area, Mike and Mark on the eastside, both are still working on settling into a permanent career. Melodee is working hard at getting a degree from Mt Marys, she’s chosen Occupational Therapy and has about two years left. Matt and Sarah are expecting their first child in January, We are both excited about being Grandparents. Joe is still at GE, it will be 30 years this Summer. We will celebrate 32 years of marriage in June as well. It seems like only yesterday, that we were young parents with a bunch of little kids. Now were old parents with a couple of little kids. I would wax eloquently here about aging and not feeling like you’re that old in your head, but if you’re our age, you know what I’m talking about already and if you are much younger you have no idea, its all relative, so I will refrain. Chris, I am homeschooling Mari, we are doing ok, I struggle with trying to keep her on task and still keeping it fun and educational. She likes being home, so I think we will make it to summer. Mari is on the very outgoing social end of the Glatzel scale so we have to schedule enough activities with friends. Mitch started HighSchool this year and is in the Engineering program at South. When you spend your life on the computer, or playing some sort of video game you get good at stuff. Here’s where I could go on about having to call my 10 yr old to turn on my tv. but again, you know what Im talking about.
There is a bit more news, but for those ADOS folks like me you can stop here. If you would like to read on feel free. Blessings, Hope your holidays are Joy filled with the love of the one who became flesh and dwelt among us.

Kita, the wonder dog Joe and I the kids: Mike, Mark Mel, Matt, Mari and Mitchell
Some other news events this year, My Grandma Whittaker died this summer at 99 ½. She would have been 100 this January. a lot of family relationships were mended and we got to see relatives we hadn’t in years. Funerals are always a bitter sweet time.
Last July 3rd My Dad, (Doug Whittaker), two friends and my brother in law made national news when they were lost on Lake Erie for 26 hours. They were fishing and had a load of fish in the front and were overturned by waves. I had just been home for my Grandmas funeral and my sister called to tell me that my Dad and Roy were missing. I was gearing up for two more funerals, but a couple of off duty guys in a helicopter decided to take one more sweep of the vast area and found them on the other side of where they were headed. They are calling it the Miracle on Lake Erie. My dad said it’s a shame that it takes an event like this to make you pray that long and that intensely.
Mike has been training for the Boston Marathon and this year he took part in the Lakefront Marathon and did very well. Hes becoming quite the competitive athlete.
Mark and Matt are still in a band together called “Im not a pilot” . You can check out their facebook page and hear bits of their music. They have a 4 people, Mark who writes the songs, plays keyboards and sings, Matt “the unofficial manager plays bass, Peter plays cello, writes some parts and adds a whole new dimension to the mix. And Steve is on drums.
On the same front, Mitchell has been taking drum lessons for a few months, his teacher says hes doing well. Is it just my kids who always want to be in a band? Joe doesn’t seem to think it at all unusual. Mitch and his other 9th grade friends, Jacob and Cameron are a band, they are looking for cover songs they can all play. I think its called NINJA something, or maybe that’s their Youtube videos. Mari just informed us that shes in a band too, with Emily and Elise . With a little smobbery in her voice she let us know that they are writing their own music. Marianna is taking the violin and making very good progress
So if you made it this far, I commend you, your focus is amazing. Have a great New Year.
Blessings from our house to your house.
The Glatzels

If the body of Christ woke up and moved,

"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it." - Aristotle

Capitalism without Godly values leads to greed, and avarice. The heart cry of people against the greed turns into a government mandated kind of sharing called Socialism. There's obviously more to it than that, but we are against the fat insurance companies, so we want our government to handle health care, and social issues, and making sure everyone gets a fair shake.

In my opinion, its because the church, has not given water to the thirsty, in Jesus name, or taken in the widow and the orphan. Jesus love should be compelling us to go into all the world and share not just the fact that they are sinners and they need to get the ticket to a good afterlife, but we should be offering the fact that Jesus promised abundant living, through us giving and loving etc.
Cudos to all those faith base organizations who are doing disaster relief etc. and the ones helping the homeless. Imagine if all those that call on Jesus' name to be their saviour offered that salvation (saved, healed, delivered, set free, made whole) to their neighbor. It'd be different world.
To the hungry that love looks like bread, to the dying that love looks like hope, to the sick that love looks like healing. Jesus paid for it all.

I think that is what Jesus meant when he said the church needed to be salt and light. Preservation, hope, healing, a path for the lost.

We cant legislate morality, or caring. We cant tell people that abortion is wrong without providing aid to the unwed, single mothers.

happiness is overated

The last week in July we went to Green Lake Conference Center for the American Baptist Holy Spirit Renewal Ministries Conference. and as usual it was an awesome time. The main speaker was JP Moreland. I was impressed. He was a professor of Philosophy at Loyola University. His first topic was on happiness, and what he had to say stayed with me. The few points I got were, happiness is overrated, the search for it has diminishing returns and even tho the American dream is more accessible now than 30 yrs ago, people are by far more stressed and depressed. So the solution to this epidemic is to see how the definition of happiness has changed over the last couple of hundred years. Now the definition to happiness is a pleasurable feeling and we look for that in everything we do, thats how we gauge our marriages, our churches, our jobs, etc. "As long as it makes ya happy" So we are set on consuming units of pleasure to keep us happy, thus the diminishing return and the rise of depression. All of that I kinda knew, but the definition of happiness for most of history is interesting, It was to have a life well lived. To live your life for a purpose greater than yourself. Isnt that so true? Isnt that what Jesus says. If you lose yourself for my sake you will find it. Too true. So if we spend our lives pouring ourselves out for the sake of the Kingdom and the King we will have a happy life.
Its not about us !!! Well, it is but not the way we think.