On line School

I have been at Fort Hays for two years now, and let me tell you, this is an awesome school. The staff is always available to handle your questions no matter what department, and if you leave a voicemail message they have always called me back. I am married, this is my second marriage, and I have six beautiful children...the first five were all girls and the last one was a boy. And no, I did not intentionally get pregnant with my son. After fifth child I did not want any more children. However, the Lord stepped in and low and behold I became pregnant with my son. it was a boy. My husband of course was thrilled to have a little man around him now, and they are clones. My son tries to stay strapped to my husband's hip. My first three girls are 25, 23, and 19 and were by my first husband, however they have a step dad in my husband, so more love to go around. Besides, he lives out of state. My three babies are 6, 10, and 12. They are all extremely smart, every one of them and my seventh grader made the cheer leading team. We were thrilled because there was so much competition, but when they gave me the break down sheet of the total cost, which they did not reveal to me until the day we picked her up from tryouts, I almost fainted! But they were only trying out at this point so we would not know for a few days if she made it or not and needed to come up with the money. But, of course, the smartest girl in school, my beautiful and tall baby she made the team. Last year she made Valedictorian and received the highest achievement trophies in all subjects..Because they do so well in school, we allow them to participate in one or two extra activities, but it is so expensive. for her to be cheerleader, I almost fainted! I had no idea it was that expensive. Now she also wants to try out for the step team, which is another few hundred dollars, but something has to give because my ten year old wants gymnastics lessons and my son wants to take up karate and all of them need swimming lessons. Can you say, "Broke because of my kids? My husband keeps telling me to relax because God always pulls us out of jams and is always right on time with His help. We are active church members, I am on the PTA Board at my daughter's middle school , and am Room Parent for my son who is in the first grade and his sister is there as well and she is in the fifth grade. Besides, we are supposed to allow the children to specialize in anything or even try out out on anything because we are in scholarship mode. They all make straight A's but to get into a good college you need more than a 4.0 average. They were in girl scouts and I was a Girl Scout Troop Leader until I became ill about two years ago. Lastly, you should know that I have a very, very rare Cancer called VIPOMA. I am in and out of doctor offices and hospitals and there is no cure. Because it is so rare, only one in ten million people get it, they really are not focusing on a cure for it. I realized that when they told me that all they can do is "make me comfortable" and "take the edge off " my pain. It is excrutiating because I already have very bad back issues and the VIPOMA which is usually in the pancreas . So I hurt all over until I can take my medicine and it kicks in. I am only telling you guys about the cancer because I spend so much time in the hospital. But now I have a Sprint mobile card so hopefully I can still log in and complete my lessons on time. Well, as you can see I am long winded. I hope to make friends with all of you and good luck to everyone!Right now I am being seen by some specialists at the John Hopkins Cancer Research Center in Baltimore. I live in Atlanta, so it is very difficult getting the money to travel there. Okay, I will stop talking now. Good Night

Toni Braswell

Kill Them With Kindness

You can get more with honey than with Salt
Kill Them With Kindness

Last Sunday we had one of the dynamic, engaging and most spectacular Methodist Pastor that I have ever had the priviledge of hearing preach… Reverend Walter Kimbrough. From the time he steps onto the stage until the time he closes the bible and the preaching part of the service is over, he will have you so mesmerized with his message and the way he delivers it that you don’t want to take your eyes off the pulpit even to take down a few notes. Nevertheless, I was able to gather a few as I feel it is very important to not just listen, but to also take notes and embrace and understand the message the preacher is trying to get across.
We were very honored to have Reverend Kimbrough speak at our church on Sunday because as you can probably guess, he is busy, busy, busy. However, because my pastor is a mentored of Reverend Kimbrough’s he takes time out of his busy schedule every so often to give us a word. I have never been disappointed by any of Rev. Kimbrough’s messages. They just seem to just naturally flow out of his mouth and right to our ears.
In this particular Bible Reading and message, he focused on the words written in Kings2 6:8-23. What I got from the sermon is that first of all, when there are more of you than there are of an opposing group, why would you worry about them hurting you? If you actually outnumber them and are in the majority, you have practically nothing to worry about. Unless, you are fighting a fight you should not be fighting to begin with. You see, sometimes you will be somewhere you should not be, doing things you should not be doing, and that could cause you to lose the fight.
During that time, there were a lot of fighting among different groups and different cities. You can kind of compare it to the fighting that goes on today amongst not only countries, but among different religions, different schools, different cliques at school, and dare I say, even sometimes among church members. Thank God we do not have that problem at our church. I have been a member of this church for about two years and I have had the pleasure of watching its attendance. Now, we have grown by 28% and we are still growing. The word is out; Leland Qwest Methodist Church is the place to be!
Sometimes you will be asked to do something that you feel in your bones is wrong, but you do anyway because your superior told you to do it. Therefore, for fear of losing their job, they do as told. In essence, they are like robots. They don’t use their own minds and own brains, they just wait for orders and do as told. This may surprise you, but there is a higher power than your superiors. If you are asked to do something that you know in your heart is unethical, then you need to pray to your Lord God for guidance. I like to think of things this way, will what I have been asked to do or will do be yet one more thing I have to explain to the Lord at the Judgment Gate? I know he forgives our sins, but that doesn’t mean we should just go around and keep committing wrongdoing even when we know it’s wrong just because we don’t want to get fired and we know He will forgive us .
Something else I wonder about too is this, how long is my “good deeds” list compared to my “you should not have done that” list. I sure hope to God that my good list is a lot longer than my bad list!
Once you develop a close one on one relationship with the Lord, you will become more aware of what you should and should not do. He tells you when to go and when to stay away. As you grow in your one on one relationship, you will receive revelations numerous times and you know that it isn’t just a dream or just a thought that popped in your head because you have cultivated your relationship with the Lord and you now know how to listen out for him. Sometimes we do not get our blessing or make mistakes because we were too busy talking to the Lord and asking for things instead of just waiting to hear his responses. One word that I hear a lot when I pray sometimes is “Be Still”. At first I had no idea that it was coming from him or what it meant but overtime I learned. Basically it means “Be Quiet, Listen, and do not act yet”. Great advice.
Did you know that sometimes God will send you your enemies directly to your path even though you may be trying to avoid them? The question here is, “What are you afraid of”? As long as you have that connection with the Lord, you have nothing to worry about. God always has your back. When you see those people in the hall who does not like you, don’t turn your head----smile at them, ask them how they are doing-show some compassion for them because they obviously need Jesus. Turn the tables, treat them like a friend….a friend with a big “caution sign” on It, but treat them with sugar. Who knows, they may have thought you didn’t like them, or it could be some other silly reason, but as a Christian, you ignore all that talk behind your back. You try to win them over for one reason and one reason only; you want them to see what being God’s child and having a close relationship with him will do. They may think you are crazy because they know you know they don’t like you, but that’s their issue…not yours. As long as you do what you are supposed to, all will be well.
Well, that’s it for now. All of the information above was thoughts, ideas, and some were even direct quotes from the awesome Reverend Kimbrough himself. Let me also add, that although this particular blog entry focused on our guest speaker, Reverend Kimbrough, I still have to express my love and admiration for my pastor, Pastor Ted Rollins. He has done a lot in changing meand some of my ways. Pastor Rollins and the church congregation that has reached out to me (you know who you are) has helped me in my journey to obtain a close relationship with my Lord. I came in a lost and slightly confused babe, and now, even though I have this rare cancer, I have not lost my religion. I believe that even the cancer may have brought me closer to the Lord. All I know is, I pray all the time now, I listen for him to speak to me now, and I try to get my children to participate in church activities. My husband and I are also active members and have been for two years, although because of my illness we are not able to attend as many meetings or outings or volunteer work we would like.

Thank you all, for praying for me, and for keeping me going. Thanks to Reverend Kimbrough for making me realize all of the above through his sermon. Thank you, Pastor Rollins for praying for me, encouraging me, and helping me to find my way back to the Lord. Good bye for now. I love you all. Good Night.