BEGINNING WITH HIM
August, 2001 Edition
As is the continued tradition, the first E-Mail Ministry (EMM) message
of the month is my chance to talk to all of you about EMM and other
related items.
TABLE OF CONTENTS FOR TODAY’S MESSAGE:
[Answer to Prayers, Update] [The Best of E-Mail Ministry]
[Author Known] [Support E-Mail Ministry]
[E-Mail Ministry eCards] [Parenting Assistance]
[You Know You Are Getting Older When…]
[Signs That You Live In The Year 2001]
[For All Parents, Grandparents, Or Future Family Planners]
[Where Are You From?] [Usage Of E-Mail Ministry Messages]
[Poll Questions] [Links Page]
* * *
ANSWER TO PRAYERS, Update
If you will recall, in my July “Beginning With Him” message sent out on
2-July-01, I talked about the growing need for an archives database to
hold all of the E-Mail Ministry message in a manner which will allow you
to search by date, categories, etc. to find particular messages.
For the past few months I have been praying as to how to add this
feature to the web site and the only response I received from God was “I
will provide”. I took this to mean he would provide the funds necessary
to hire someone to do the programming. However, God has answered my
prayer in another way …. He has provided someone to do the programming
itself!
John from GodsFamily.com has begun to develop the archive database for
E-Mail Ministry. Progress has been made, but it will probably be another
month or two before it is launched.
I would also like to thank all the people heard God’s call to make a
donation. Since the funding need is substantially less than anticipated,
I offered to return anyone’s donation who asked. I am pleased and
blessed to announce that no one requested their donation back! (NOTE:
Would the subscriber from Ontario, Canada who sent me a donation please
e-mail me at emailministry@emailministry.org with your mailing address
so I can send you your book. Thanks. — doug)
A little about GodsFamily.com: GodsFamily.com was founded by John
MacMillan and offers free web-based email, free web hosting, discussion
forums, chat rooms and a comparison shopping site. The email and web
hosting will always be the core of their services, other features are
added for their user’s benefit, and may be changed or discontinued based
on user needs. So, if you want an email address which says what you
believe, get your free e-mail address (for example:
myname@GodsFamily.com) For more information, visit his web site at:
http://www.godsfamily.com
* * *
THE BEST OF E-MAIL MINISTRY
I want to let all of you know that my family and I will be traveling
during the month of August – a long planned, much needed vacation. Have
no fear, E-Mail Ministry will continue to send out its messages.
However, to ease the time requirements of maintaining the ministry while
on vacation, I plan on sending out what I am calling “The Best of E-Mail
Ministry”. I will probably focus on some of the early messages which
were sent out when their were only a few hundred subscribers. Now, with
18,000+ subscribers, the messages will be first time reading for a vast
majority of you.
Also, because of my traveling, it may take me a while to respond to
e-mails you may send me. I appreciate your patience.
* * *
AUTHOR KNOWN
Almost all of the messages I send our are “Author Unknown”, or more
specifically, author unknown to me. Thanks to knowledgeable readers,
here is author information on two messages from July:
* The author of the 18-July message is from the book “In The Eye of The
Storm” by Max Lucado.
* The author of the 13-July message correctly titled “Father’s Love
Letter”. The lyrics and story were created by Barry Adams. You can find
out more about this message at his web site:
http://www.fathersloveletter.com/
* * *
SUPPORT E-MAIL MINISTRY
I would like to thank all of you who have sent in donations. If you have
been blessed by this ministry, please ask God what He would have you
do. You may make donations by credit card at:
https://www.emailministry.org/ccbill/index.htm Credit card donations can
be made as a one-time donation or as a monthly recurring donation.
You can also make a donation by check. Checks can be sent to:
E-Mail Ministry, Inc.
P.O. Box 944
Garden City, MI 48136-0944
If you make a donation of $25.00 or more I will send you a copy of Max
Lucado’s exciting new 64 page evangelistic book “He Did This Just For
You” (only a handful of copies left!). It’s the perfect way to help you
introduce the gospel to your family members, friends and acquaintances
as well as strengthen your own faith. This has been a popular offer and
supplies are limited. Hurry now, don’t miss out on this wonderful book!
E-Mail Ministry is exclusively supported by its subscribers. I do not
accept any compensation for my efforts with this ministry. Donations
are solely used to offset the growing costs of this ministry. It is my
prayer that, like God’s grace, EMM always remains free.
* * *
E-MAIL MINISTRY eCARDS
A note from a subscriber:
“I just found out that I could send Christian e-mail cards thru your
ministry. Wow, what a blessing. I started sending some right away. I
have a brother in the hospital with a stroke and my granddaughter whom I
spoke of in an e-mail. I send each one a Christian [e-card]. What a
great start. I love it. The music relates not only to adults but to my
great granddaughter as she has learned Jesus Love Me so I entered that.
This is the best site and card program I have ever seen on computer.
PRAISE THE LORD. This is where I will be [when] trying to do more
witnessing. WOW. GOD IS SO GOOD TO US. Mary L.”
Need to send a card to someone for their birthday or to say “Thank You”
or to offer a word of encouragement? You can send electronic cards
(eCards) from the EMM web site. The cards are good, ol’ fashion,
Christian kind of cards for all occasions or for no occasion at all.
The good thing about the EMM eCards is that the person who receives them
doesn’t have to have internet access. They can read them right in their
e-mail. The web page address is:
https://www.emailministry.org/ecards.htm
* * *
PARENTING ASSISTANCE
Here are two web sites that can help you understand what your kids will
be seeing when they go to the movies are watch television.
http://www.screenit.com – The most comprehensive site on the web when it
comes to reviewing today’s movies. It tells you exactly what you can
expect from the language and violence to the sexual content and
attitudes.
http://www.parentstv.org – A great site for helping parents make wise
television decisions. They monitor all controversial shows and alert
you to the sponsors of each.
* * *
YOU KNOW YOU ARE GETTING OLDER WHEN…
(With August being my birthday month, this seemed to ‘talk’ to me!
Although, hopefully, I haven’t achieved all of these! — doug)
1. You and your teeth don’t sleep together.
2. Your try to straighten out the wrinkles in your socks and discover
you aren’t wearing any.
3. At the breakfast table you hear snap, crackle, pop and you’re not
eating cereal.
4. Your back goes out, but you stay home.
5. When you wake up looking like your driver’s license picture.
6. It takes two tries to get up from the couch.
7. When your idea of a night out is sitting on the patio.
8. When happy hour is a nap.
9. When you’re on vacation, and your ENERGY runs out before your money
does.
10. When you say something to your kids that your mother/father said to
you, and you always hated it. (“Go to bed, I’m tired” – remember
Dad?)
11. When all you want for your birthday is to not be reminded of your
age. (not quite old, but getting closer! — doug)
12. When you step off a curb and look down one more time to make sure
the street is still there.
13. Your idea of weight lifting is standing up.
14. It takes longer to rest than it did to get tired
15. Your memory is shorter and your complaining lasts longer.
16. Your address book has mostly names that start with Dr.
17. You sit in a rocking chair and can’t get it going.
18. The pharmacist has become your new best friend.
19. The twinkle in your eye is merely a reflection from the sun on your
bifocals.
20. It takes twice as long – to look half as good.
21. Everything hurts, and what doesn’t hurt – doesn’t work.
22. You look for your glasses for half an hour, and they were on your
head the whole time.
23. You sink your teeth into a steak – and they stay there.
24. You give up all your bad habits and still don’t feel good.
25. You have more patience, but it is actually that you just don’t care
anymore.
26. You finally get your head together and your body starts falling
apart.
27. You wonder how you could be over the hill when you don’t even
remember being on top of it.
* * *
SIGNS THAT YOU LIVE IN THE YEAR 2001:
1. You just tried to enter your password on the microwave.
2. You have a list of 15 phone numbers to reach your family of three.
3. You call your son’s beeper to let him know it is time to eat. He
e-mails you back from his bedroom “What’s for dinner?”
4. Your daughter sells Girl Scout Cookies via her website.
5. You chat several times a day with a stranger from S. Africa but you
haven’t spoken with your next door neighbor this year.
6. Your grandmother asks you to send her a JPEG file of your newborn
so she can create a screen saver.
7. Every commercial on television has a website address at the bottom
of the screen.
8. Leaving the house without your cell phone, which you didn’t have for
20 years before, is cause for panic and turning around to get it.
9. Your reason for not staying in touch with family or friends is that
they do not have e-mail addresses.
10. You consider second day air delivery painfully slow.
11. Your idea of being organized requires a Palm Pilot.
12. You hear most of your jokes via E-mail instead of in person.
13. You get an extra phone line so you can get phone calls.
14. You disconnect from the Internet and get this awful feeling as if
you had just pulled the plug on a loved one.
15. You get up in the morning and get online before getting your
coffee.
16. You wake up at 2:00 a.m. to go to the bathroom and check your
E-mail on the way back to bed.
17. You start tilting your head sideways to smile 🙂
* * *
FOR ALL PARENTS, GRANDPARENTS, OR FUTURE FAMILY PLANNERS
The government recently calculated the cost of raising a child from
birth to 18 and came up with $160,140 for a middle income family.
Talk about sticker shock! And that doesn’t even touch college tuition.
For those with kids, that figure leads to wild fantasies about all the
money we could have banked if not for (insert your child’s name here).
For others, that number might confirm the decision to remain childless.
But $160,140 isn’t so bad if you break it down, It translates into
$8,896.66 a year, $741.38 a month, or $171.08 a week. That’s a mere
$24.44 a day! Just over a dollar an hour. Still, you might think the
best financial advice says don’t have children if you want to be “rich.”
Actually, it is just the opposite. What do your get for your $160,140?
* Naming rights. First, middle, and last!
* Glimpses of God every day.
* Giggles under the covers every night.
* More love than your heart can hold.
* Butterfly kisses and Velcro hugs.
* Endless wonder over rocks, ants, clouds, and warm cookies.
* A hand to hold, usually covered with jam.
* A partner for blowing bubbles, flying kites, building sandcastles, and
skipping down the sidewalk in the pouring rain.
* Someone to laugh yourself silly with no matter what the boss said or
how your stocks performed that day.
For $160,140, you never have to grow up.
* You get to finger-paint, carve pumpkins, play hide-and-seek, catch
lightning bugs, and never stop believing in Santa Claus.
* You have an excuse to keep reading the Adventures of Piglet and Pooh,
watching Saturday morning cartoons, going to Disney movies, and
wishing on stars.
* You get to frame rainbows, hearts, and flowers under refrigerator
magnets and collect spray painted noodle wreaths for Christmas,
handprints set in clay for Mother’s Day, and cards with backward
letters for Father’s Day.
For $160,140, there is no greater bang for your buck.
* You get to be a hero just for retrieving a Frisbee off the garage
roof, taking the training wheels off the bike, removing a splinter,
filling the wading pool, coaxing a wad of gum out of bangs, and
coaching a baseball team that never wins but always gets treated to
ice cream regardless.
* You get a front row seat to history to witness the first step, first
word, first date, and first time behind the wheel.
* You get to be immortal. You get another branch added to your family
tree, and if you’re lucky, a long list of limbs in your obituary
called grandchildren.
* You get education in psychology, nursing, criminal justice,
communications, and human sexuality that no college can match.
* In the eyes of a child, you rank right up there with God. You have all
the power to heal a boo-boo, scare away the monsters under the bed,
patch a broken heart, police a slumber party, ground them forever,
and love them without limits, so one day they will, like you, love
without counting.
* * *
WHERE ARE YOU FROM?
If you are from a country other than the United States, please let me
know by sending an e-mail to: emailministry@emailministry.org
E-Mail Ministry has a mission to reach “all nations” and needs your help
to accomplish this calling! Currently, EMM is in 58 countries but there
are many more to reach! To see the list of countries and the world map,
go to: https://www.emailministry.org/subscribe/index.htm#SubscriberMap
* * *
USAGE OF E-MAIL MINISTRY MESSAGES
A note from a subscriber:
“Thank you for the messages. They are truly an inspiration. When I
first received one from a friend I subscribed myself, and I started
forwarding them on to friends. Then it occurred to me that I could
share them in a greater way by including them occasionally as an insert
to our church bulletin which I do the set-up for each week. I have
given credit as you requested since the first time that I saw the
request in your message. They are as openly received by the
congregation at church as by my friends that I correspond with by
e-mail. Thanks for the messages, and keep up the good work!
A faithful subscriber!
Linda G.”
As always, feel free to send these messages on to others as the Lord
leads you. I respectfully request that when you forward the messages
on, please leave the ‘header’ and ‘footer’ information in place so that
others may know about this ministry and how to subscribe.
Also, feel free to use these messages in your church bulletins, sermons,
bible studies, etc. If you do use the messages, please put “Message
distributed by E-Mail Ministry (https://www.emailministry.org)” at the
bottom of any material you use. That way more people will become aware
of this ministry.
* * *
POLL QUESTIONS
The results of the June/July poll question can viewed at
https://www.emailministry.org/pollresults.htm. Here is the August poll
question (Go the web site at: https://www.emailministry.org/#Polls
register your vote!! Please do NOT send me an e-mail with your vote!)
Q: When do you like to go on vacation?
* * *
LINKS PAGE
Thanks to all of you who submitted a link to be added to the EMM Links
Page. To recommend a Christian site, please use the ‘Add a Link’ form
at: https://www.emailministry.org/links/index.htm#AddALink
You can add a link from your web site to EMM. Simply copy the following
html code into your web page using your html editor:
* * *
I pray this message finds you growing in the understanding of how much
God loves you. I ask your prayers for safe travel while on vacation.
— doug
Founder, Editor, Webmaster & ‘Chief Bottle Washer’ of E-Mail Ministry