The girl who cried bear!!

Okay...the last two weeks have been for the black bears. For those of you who do not know, we have black bears here in PA. The first time I saw one in the wild was a few years ago when Dan and I were driving to our Pastors house to get our dogs and bring them home. It was right by the road and just bounding up the hill. It was huge (maybe some of the size could have been that it was getting dark out already and well, black bears are black...but still it was pretty big)!!

Since that time I've seen two at our local Animal land...in a very, very small cage.

I took my mom to animal land for her b-day 2 years ago and these were the bears.

Then two weeks ago Michael told me how at camp (he was a counselor) he took a bears temperature (I'm waiting to see if someone took a picture of that). I guess the forest ranger brought a bear to do s presentation for the teens...they only do it if they capture one. There is a mange infection going around and they want to treat the bears before it gets too bad. The ranger asked for a volunteer and Mike, not knowing what he was getting into, volunteered. Afterwards, we found out that they had captured the bear in the area where we live (they check the bear and tag it then let it go free back where they caught it). So everyone was joking about how now that bear will be gunning for Mike!

Last week they captured another bear, who apparently was not afraid of humans, and therefore going right up to homes and camps...not a good thing as this is a wild animal. So, by capturing it and tagging it they hope it will now fear humans. The ranger once again brought the bear to camp (by the way the bears are knocked out cold when they are there). This time my mom was able to hear the presenation...she was so excited! Mike was also a conselor last week for the junior camp...but no this time they didn't have to take a temperature, just tag it.

Okay...then yesterday at church the Pastor's wife was showing us pictures of a bear and her two cubs who is on their mountain (we live in a little valley and they live on the hill directly in front of us). We were all oohing and aahhing at the photos. On the way home as we were rounding a curve I saw a bear in the weeds. I called out, "Mom! A bear!" She slowed down and as we rounded the corner and the weeds parted the bear was right there!!! Less then 5-6 feet away...boy was I glad to have the car as protection! It stood on it's hind legs all the way up to it's full height! That was quite an awesome sight! (I'm not very good at estimating, but my mom said it looked like it could have been over 5 feet and at least 500-600 pounds.) It then turned and ran. As we slowly started to drive again I looked into the woods and saw two little cubs running. I assume that these are the same bears that were in the pictures from church. Unfortunately, we did not a have a camera, but it was amazing how close we were to see the bears.

Every Sunday my brothers run home from church (we are only 2 miles from church) well, we had just talked about how a mother bear will protect her cubs and not knowing what way the bears ran, my mom and I were nervous about the boys running home and wondering if they would meet the bears. So we drove out...with camera in hand...to pick them up (we had the Barger's over for lunch after church and Vance was running with my bro's as well).

We did not see the bears again...but I'm keeping a lookout and a close watch on the dogs...don't want to stumble on that mother bear!

What's in a Name

The URL for this blog is "A Song of Deliverance". I wanted to explain why I chose that.

First of all, I love music (I've been writing songs since I was a little girl) and the Lord has really used music in my life to lift me up and encourage me. Thus, it has been my goal to use the music the Lord gives me to encourage others. As of yet I have not had an opportunity to really get the music out there...but all in the Lord's time.

Anyway, one of the songs I started working on is called, "A Song Of Deliverance". It came about as a few months ago I was reading my Bible and saw Psalms 32:7- 'Thou art my hiding place; thou shalt preserve me from trouble; thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance. Selah.' When I read that verse I began to feel encouraged knowing that it didn't say maybe God would preserve me from trouble or be my hiding place. If God feels like it He'll be there for you, but it said 'Thou shalt'.

It made me feel so encouraged and I also, was looking for a way to get out and share some things that the Lord had shown me, so I could encourage others. I was desperately trying to think of a name for this blog and realized that A Song of Deliverance should be it.

Every time in the last few years that I've felt: down, discouraged, distraught, frustrated, fearful or any feelings that one tends to have during those harder times- God had always given me a song of deliverance. It's actually during those times that I've written most of the songs that the Lord has given me. I feel so strongly that if you are in a trail the Lord will compass you about with some form of comfort that will assist you as you move to the deliverance He is bringing about for that situation.

Thus...my blog URL and the Psalms 32:7 title. I hope and pray that the Lord will use this blog to not only encourage others, but to be a song of deliverance for someone at some point and time...and maybe someday you'll hear the completed music for...A Song of Deliverance.

Birthday Surprise!

This past Friday my family and I did a surprise birthday party for Michael (my brother)! We invited the Barger family over and tried to do as much as possible to be ready without Mike suspecting it. A few times we almost slipped...but thankfully he didn't catch that anything was unawares until the time was right. He was very surprised and we all had a super time!

First, we had some good food and then we went and played our two favorite games....volley ball and water balloons. I must admit that it's a lot of work getting the balloons ready, but it is all worth it when you get to to fun of the game. What is the game? Try and get everyone as wet as possible!!

Volley ball was, I'm a terrible player, but I'm trying to get better. Actually, that evening was the most I've played volleyball than in anytime prior to that combined! Hopefully, we'll have some more of all that fun throughout the summer!!

Happy Birthday Mike!

Sometimes you just have to smile

This past Sunday we sang at a church that we have been going to for the last few weeks. We had tried to practice through the week (we only had one practice session), but couldn't seem to get settled on a song. Sunday morning we woke up and had to quickly confirm what we were going to sing. Well, sometimes things don't always go the way you planned. We had one song ready and another that was about 98% of the way there. We were just trying to figure out who was going to sing which verse.

When we got to church I turned to Mike and said, "Just sing the song through and we'll join in with you wherever we can." He nodded and church started. We got up to sing and the first song went great. The second song.....at home we were talking about me singing the second verse as a solo, but I thought that when I told Mike to just sing and we'll join in that we had changed that. Well, he may have nodded, but he still thought I was supposed to sing.

So Mike was strumming his guitar.....and strumming his guitar....and I turned and looked at him waiting for him to start singing, but there was just the guitar strumming. Then I thought...."HHHmmmm. Maybe I'm supposed to sing?" But unfortunately now I did know if it was safe to jump in and start singing or if I should just wait or what....by this time Mike was pretending that he was playing an interlude to the next verse.

Well, as it turns out he finished playing through the verse in the guitar as best he could and we all started singing again. Sometimes you can't change it so just smile and go along with the flow.......

Welcome!

Welcome to my new site! In the past the most I've done online is check my emails, write people back, and put articles I'd written on my writing sites that I use. But my sister has been after me to get out there and start a blog. So (drum roll please...) today I not only started this blog (after about two weeks of trying to think of a url) but I also started a facebook profile (she's also been after me for a few months on that one)! So, Rach....here it is!!!

Till next time!
Reb