Hertzler Doings-Aug.22-25,2008

I think it was Friday the 22nd that I was talking to Anne on the phone. She often calls on her way to work. Suddenly, I realized that I was talking and she wasn't responding. I heard a crackling and rustling sound. I hung up and called back 5 min. later and got the answering machine. About 45 min. later, I called her work because I was getting worried because she hadn't called me back. They told me that she had been in an accident. Her car was totalled.
She is now home from the hospital after being in several days. Her second lumbar is fractured and she is in a back/body brace for the next 6 weeks. After 4 days, it is starting to get to her. People wonder what we were talking about.(on the phone) I know we talked about her weight loss and that she had only 3/4 of a pound to lose and she would be at her goal weight. She told me she was sending peaches down with Joe and Karen for me to do up. That's all I can remember.

Joe and Karen came down that same day I think and spent a nice long weekend with us. Karen helped me make peach jam. We made freezer jam and the recipe called for sugar, peaches, crushed pineapple and orange jello. We went over to Tom and Helen's for pizza on Sat. eve. Gordon and Alicia were there with their two children. Helen helped save the life of their baby not too many weeks ago. Michelle looked like a little gypsy girl with her hair tied back with a dark flowered kerchief. Our boys were acting absolutely crazy. Freeman can mimic any kind of voice. Michael can mimic any kind of face. Philip can enjoy them doing it. Susan rolls her eyes. We had alot of fun but you had to be there. I think I had to do my rap for them while Meredith taped it.
Karen went with me to school on Monday to take care of filling out forms and paying for ice cream and gym clothes, etc. We had some other good times. We visited Steve and Dianna on Sunday. We ate lots of popcorn and watched the Three Stooges when we came back from their place. Hertzler men love the Three Stooges.

On Sunday, we had a great church service. During a worship song, some members of our church came out one by one on stage and held up a cardboard sign with just a few words. On the first side was a description of their life without Christ or without His intervention in a situation. Then they flipped the sign over and it said where they are now. For example, someone wrote,"I wanted to be invisible."Flip." Missionary to Thousands." or " Grew up in a drug and alcohol family" flip "Kept by the Holy Spirit." People wrote many other vulnerable things involving inprisonment, addictions, abuses, and death. It was an incredible morning; one of seeing how the power of God overcomes the power of destruction . One moment, I would feel the awful pain of someone's life and the next moment, I would feel the ecstacy of what Jesus did for them. It was emotional and faith building. I was so aware that we all have cards we can flip over and we all have cards with only one side written on. Sometimes there is alot of pain and darkness while we go through Side One and its effects on our lives. But God works on a different time table then we do. And God works in the dark and He understands pain. In God, side two is mostly likely written before Side one ever took place.